Design Your System for Inevitable Success
If willpower is the unreliable employee, then your system is the dependable CEO. A well-designed system makes consistency feel less like a struggle and more like the natural, easy thing to do. This is where the real trick to stay consistent lies: not in trying harder, but in designing smarter. We’ll use four key principles to build a system that supports your goals automatically.
1. Start with a Minimum Viable Action (MVA)
The single biggest mistake people make when building a new habit is starting too big. Our initial burst of motivation tricks us into believing we can go from zero to one hundred overnight. But that motivation is a fickle friend. The key is to design a habit that you can stick with even on your worst day—when you’re tired, stressed, and have zero motivation.
This is the concept of the Minimum Viable Action (MVA). It’s the absolute smallest version of your desired habit, one that is so easy it feels almost ridiculous not to do it. The MVA should take two minutes or less to complete.
Let’s look at some examples:
Goal: “Read more.”
MVA: “Read one page of a book.”
Goal: “Meditate for 20 minutes daily.”
MVA: “Sit and take one deep breath.”
Goal: “Go to the gym three times a week.”
MVA: “Put on my running shoes and walk out the front door.”
Goal: “Write 1,000 words a day.”
MVA: “Open my document and write one sentence.”
The purpose of the MVA is not to get impressive results on day one. The purpose is to master the art of showing up. It builds the neural pathway for the action and solidifies your new identity. You are becoming the person who reads every day, the person who meditates, the person who exercises. Once the habit of showing up is established, you can naturally and gradually expand the behavior. But the foundation must be unshakably small.
2. Conduct a Friction Audit
Friction is anything that stands between you and your desired action. It’s the effort, time, or mental energy required to get started. Our brains are wired to conserve energy, so even a small amount of friction can be enough to derail our best intentions. The secret to how to stay consistent is to systematically decrease the friction for your good habits and increase it for your bad habits.
To do a friction audit, ask yourself: “What are all the steps between me and doing this habit, and how can I make them easier?”
Decreasing Friction for Good Habits:
Habit: Morning workout.
Friction: Finding clothes, packing a bag, deciding on the workout.
Solution: Lay out your workout clothes the night before. Pack your gym bag and put it by the door. Have a pre-selected workout routine ready to go.
Habit: Eating a healthy breakfast.
Friction: Prepping ingredients, cooking, cleaning up.
Solution: Prep overnight oats in a jar. Have pre-portioned smoothie packs in the freezer. Choose a simple option like Greek yogurt with berries.
Increasing Friction for Bad Habits:
Habit: Mindlessly scrolling on your phone at night.
Friction: The phone is right there on the nightstand.
Solution: Leave your phone to charge in another room overnight. Use an app that blocks social media after a certain time.
Habit: Eating junk food.
Friction: It’s easily accessible in the pantry.
Solution: Don’t buy it in the first place. Store any treats in an opaque container on a high shelf, making them invisible and hard to reach.
Spend 15 minutes auditing your environment. How can you make your desired path the path of least resistance? This small investment of time pays huge dividends in long-term consistency.
3. Engineer Your Environment with Cues
Your environment is one of the most powerful and invisible forces shaping your behavior. If your kitchen counter is covered in junk food, you’ll eat more junk food. If your guitar is in its case in the back of the closet, you’ll rarely practice. We must stop blaming ourselves for a lack of willpower and start taking responsibility for the spaces we inhabit. Design your environment to make your habit cues obvious.
This strategy is sometimes called habit stacking, where you link your new desired habit to an existing one that already serves as a reliable cue. The formula is: “After [Current Habit], I will [New Habit].”
For example:
“After I pour my morning cup of coffee, I will open my journal.” (The coffee pot is the cue).
“After I brush my teeth at night, I will do two minutes of stretching.” (The toothbrush is the cue).
You can also use physical objects as cues:
Want to drink more water? Place a water bottle on your desk, in your car, and on your nightstand.
Want to floss? Put the floss container directly on top of your toothpaste.
Want to take a daily vitamin? Put the bottle next to your coffee machine.
The goal is to make the cue for your good habit more obvious than the cues for your distractions. You are essentially programming your environment to give you a nudge in the right direction, reducing the need for conscious thought or motivation.
4. Create Gentle Accountability
While the internal shift to an identity-based approach is paramount, external support can be a powerful accelerator. Accountability adds a small, positive social pressure that encourages you to follow through.
This doesn’t have to be intense or judgmental. It can be as simple as having a “habit buddy.” Find a friend you can text each day after you’ve completed your MVA. “Did my one sentence!” or “Running shoes are on!” The act of reporting to someone else, even in a low-stakes way, makes you far more likely to do the thing.
Another form of accountability is simple tracking. A habit tracker, whether it’s a fancy app or a simple calendar with an “X” on the days you complete your habit, provides a visual representation of your progress. It leverages our desire not to “break the chain,” creating a rewarding feedback loop that reinforces the behavior. This visual proof is a powerful vote for your new identity.
