How to Build Synergistic Habits: A Simple Guide for Life-Changing Routines

Have you ever wondered why certain people just seem to have it all figured out?

The dream body, the social life, the career… it seems like they are superhuman.

How the hell do they manage?

Where do they find the time?

How can I achieve that?

They reached that point because they developed a system of habits that exponentially increase their results.

They’re not necessarily smarter or working harder than you are.

But, they focus on activities that bring them closer to their goals.

These activities become part of who they are. They make them.

You’re probably thinking: “that’s not rocket science, tell me something I don’t know…”

And you’re right, but here’s the catch: not all habits are equal.

Habits push you in one direction.

One habit may propel you forward. Another may pull you back.

To maximize your results, you must focus on the former.

You may still think that this concept is common sense.

That’s because it is. It’s not that complicated.

We tend to think of these high-achieving individuals as a special breed among us.

The truth is that you can do it too.

You also have your own set of habits, but you must stop and thinking carefully.Are they synergistic habits?

Synergistic Habits

For every habit you engage in, there are synergistic and contradictory habits.

This is what makes all the difference.

Think of your income and your expenses.

Synergistic habits add to your balance.

Contradictory habits remove from your balance.

You may earn a high income but if you live a frivolous life, pay-check to pay-check, you are still broke.

If you instead live below your means and invest that hard-earned money in assets that will generate more money, you’ve created synergy between your habits.

1. Income
2. Spend less than you earn = savings
3. Invest the savings in assets
4. Generate more income/equity from assets
5. Rinse, repeat and profit from the benefits of compounding

It does not matter how hard you work in one habit if the rest of what you do shatters your results.

You need to develop synergistic habits. Do it as soon as possible.

Just like how the sooner your money is in the market, the sooner your habits have synergy, the sooner you will benefit from compounding.

In this case, it’s life compounding. You can’t put a number on certain actions but on a long enough timeline, the difference is massive.

Together, these habits create greater results than they would individually.

How do we begin to create synergistic habits?

The Science of Habit Formation

First, you need to understand a crucial topic: habit formation.

Then, you can synergize your habits.

Your brain forms habits to make behaviours automatic.

Habits are automatic behaviours you do without too much thought.

Habits reduce the friction it takes to do something.

Otherwise, it would take up so much mental space to do the most basic of things.

Think of what you do on autopilot every day.

• Wake up
• Brush your teeth
• Scroll through social media
• Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Exercise, walk, run
• Watch television

When you do the same thing over and over again, your brain connects certain signals, actions, places, and outcomes.

Eventually, that activity becomes a new habit.

But, again, not all habits are equal.

To improve your life, you can create habits that work together and support each other.

When you do new things your brain’s pathways change and adapt.

During this process, you rely on the habit loop: a cycle of a cue, routine, and reward.

A cue is a trigger that prompts you to do something.

A reward is a good feeling that comes after, making you want to do it again.

To create synergistic habits, find routines or habits that can stacked to new ones.

James Clear refers to this as habit stacking. By using the connectedness of behaviour, you can stack a new behaviour on top of an existing habit.

A clear example is when you wake up and brush your teeth.

You will brush yourself teeth every day, why not add a series of push ups or squats before or after?

This helps you wake up and exercise before the day has even started.

The reason why this is so powerful is because you already have a habit built into your brain.

By adding this new behaviour, you are more likely to turn it into a new habit.

Synergistic Habits Examples

Let’s say your main goal is to become healthier.

You decide to lift weights to build muscle mass and lose weight to stay lean.

Sure, going to the gym to lift weights is crucial. But, if you only rely on the habit of lifting weights, it will take longer for you to reach your goal.

You can make the process faster through other habits that are synergistic with the gym.

These habits are:

• Stretching
• Eating healthy meals and tracking your macros
• Maintaining an adequate caloric deficit (weight loss) or surplus (weight gain)
• Reading up on the science behind muscle building
• Listening to podcasts on fitness and nutrition
• Research what others with the same goals are doing
• Go to bed early so you can get enough sleep for your muscles to recover
• Limit your alcohol intake

If you lift weights but don’t take care of your nutrition, sleep, or party and drink excessively, you can still gain muscle. But, your gym performance and muscle recovery/growth will be affected.

In this case, these habits are contradictory.

The lack of nutrition, sleep, constant partying, and drinking hinder your habit of lifting weights to build muscle, and your ultimately, your goal of building muscle.

You may skip a workout because of a hangover. You might reach a plateau earlier if you don’t eat enough protein and get enough sleep.

By linking habits, you can synergy that makes your goals easier to achieve.

Study any successful person and you will realize that the sum of their habits is that took them there.

Your business, goal and dream job won’t magically happen.

How to Choose Synergistic Habits

We see a lot of people going hard at the start of every year.

They make resolutions, big goals but give up after a few weeks in or months if they were really motivated.

That’s because these individuals have fallen for the trap of expecting immediate results.

UberEats, DoorDash, Netflix, Youtube, Instagram, even our smart phones have created an expectation of immediate gratification.

I think it’s amazing to have these apps and tools because they make our lives easier.

But, the danger is thinking that everything is supposed to come quickly.

This is where most individuals fall under.

The new year comes, there’s a gap between who they are and who they want to be.

They’re super motivated… for a short period of time.

Unless they’ve developed a system of habits, they’re bound to quit and revert back to their pre-New Year state.

This is because everything in your life happens in phases.

You don’t start benching 225 lbs.

You don’t just do 50 push ups.

You don’t just know how to do x, y, z.

You start, immerse yourself in x, y, z, learn, improve, and so on.

But that happens over a long period of time.

If you fall for the false promises of getting shredded abs in 14 days, losing 10 pounds in a week, getting rich quick with a new drop shipping method or whatever other marketers and influencers try to sell you, you’ve already lost.

To choose synergistic habits:

1) Limit your expectations - You are not going to get your dream results right away in anything that you do. Accept this and move on.

As cliche as it sounds, focusing on the process is what really matters.

2) List all your habits - What your current habits? What are the things you do effortless every day? Be honest with yourself.

3) Choose your overarching goal - Decide on what that you want to achieve. Without the what, it’s difficult to figure out how.

Most of us just go with the goals that society and others project onto us.

What do you want out of your life?

4) Make a list of the habits that will help you achieve your chosen goal - List everything that comes to mind. Be specific, honest, and as creative as you want.

What are things you can do daily? Will they pull you from or push you toward your goal?What do you see others you admire already doing?

5) Put it all together - Start by selecting a few habits that work well together. Then, eliminate some of the habits that hinder your progression.

Don’t go crazy just yet. It has to be sustainable so start small and gradually add other habits until you feel you’ve covered your stack.

The idea is not to engage in a million habits but few carefully selected ones that will be in synergy.

This synergy will make your life flow. You will find it much easier to achieve your goals and grow.

You will move from one milestone to another, leaving your past self in awe.

This is how successful people can achieve so much over time.

Forget the resolutions, start where you are now.

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