Like every other human out there, I have habits. While I am proud of some of these habits, I am not particularly proud of many others.

In fact, I had this very embarrassing habit that took me a while to shake off (And no, it is not the one that I wrote a book about). Let’s just say that I had a really strange case of pica. It so happened that whenever I drank water, be it from a plastic bottle or from a plastic sachet, I always ended chewing up either the cover or the plastic sachet itself. In fact, there was this day I was walking back from school and I had a sachet of water in my hands. Of course, by the time I was done drinking the water, I found myself chewing on the plastic material. Unknown to me, someone had been watching me go through the whole routine. Eventually, I saw her, but it was too late. I already had three-fourths of the sachet in my mouth!

Of course, since I’m a big boy now, I do not have that habit anymore!

So what changed? How did I make the transition from mindlessly chewing on plastics to being in a default state of not being tempted at all?

Keep reading and you’d be surprised at how much my simple discovery will transform every aspect of your life.

The Power of Planning for Pain on Habits

Researchers once conducted an experiment to see how people were able to develop new habits. These scientists recruited 100 elderly men who had just gone through hip or knee replacement surgeries. Recovering from this specific surgical procedure can be a very painful process and the patients need to start moving their joints almost immediately after they wake up from the surgery. If they failed to do so, they might develop internal blood clots which may be life-threatening. However, since the surgery causes an extremely intense pain, the recovering patients are not particularly excited about staying mobile.

So, here’s what the researchers did: They gave each man a booklet where they would write down the specific ways that they were going to follow the doctors’ orders to stay mobile. For instance, they could write something like, ‘I am going to walk down Claire Street by 5:30 pm on Monday evening.’

At the end of 14 weeks, the researcher compared the recoveries of the men that wrote an action plan with those that did not write an action plan.

As you would imagine, the guys that wrote a plan were nearly three times more mobile than those who did not write down any goals. These men were walking faster, doing laundry, tying their shoelaces and even making their meals at the end of three months!

To the researchers’ credit, they did not stop at merely at claiming that writing down your goals will help you effortlessly start a new habit. I mean, come on! We all have goals we’ve written at some points in our lives which we failed to take any action on.

So, there was obviously something else that was common to all the men that had written a plan.

As the researchers delved into the booklet of each patient that had written a goal, they discovered an amazing trend.

You see, all the men that had written down their goals had also anticipated the hindrances that would have prevented them from being mobile. And not only that, but they also had an action plan of what to do when they eventually faced that hindrance. For instance, some men anticipated that they would feel an excruciating pain in the days after the surgery anytime they wanted to stand up. So, they planned, long before they actually felt the pain, that whenever they stood up, they would immediately take that first step, rather than sitting back down to ease the pain.

The men who succeeded could do so because of two things. First, they anticipated pain before the pain came, and then, most importantly, they made a plan of what to do when the pain eventually came. As a result, they were able to endure the pain and reap the benefits of staying mobile over the cause of 14 weeks.

Daniel’s Plan For Pain

For a while, I have been looking for teachings from the Bible on specific instructions for creating good habits. I really had a difficult time finding Bible characters who had poor habits, made tweaks, and then developed healthy habits.

Then I was studying my Bible the other day and came across the story of Daniel in Daniel 1:8, 12,

‘But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank…Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.‘

Like in the experiment for the surgery dudes, long before he was faced with the temptation of defiling himself with the pagan king’s delicacies, Daniel had already purposed in his heart.

Long before he was confused by the smell of grilled meat sacrificed to idols, Daniel had already developed an action plan of eating pulses and water.

As a result, when he was eventually in a situation where he could not escape being around the king’s meals, it was easy for Daniel to resist the temptation and simply focus on the alternatives he had created for himself.

And herein lies the secret first step to creating very powerful habits: You need to make a plan of action long before you are faced with the temptation to fall into bad habits. 

In my embarrassing habit of chewing on plastic sachets and covers, I needed to create a plan of what to do with the cover/sachet long before I even had it in my hand. Since I knew I had the habit of wanting to chew something after drinking water, I got myself an alternative in the form of chewing gum. So, as soon as I was done drinking water, I threw the plastic cover/sachet into a nearby trashcan and simply chewed gum instead!

This is so simple, yet it has the potent capacity to turn your life around dramatically.

Do you find it difficult to create the time to meditate? How about creating a plan for using the chunk of time it takes you to drive from your house to your office.

Are you finding it difficult to get out of bed early? How about using the same tune for both your calls and your alarm.

Regardless of whatever situation you may find yourself, there is always a way of escape. You only have to plan for it before you have a need for it.