[MUSIC] So if you want to create or change a habit, there are seven useful steps to think about. 1, have a specific and achievable goal. Let's say that my goal is, arrive at every meeting five minutes before it starts, or make all my deadlines, or express gratitude. What's the goal and can it be very specific and is it actionable? 2, Think through the benefits to your goals. Get in your head what the goal is and how it benefits you. It helps me to be on time because it helps me be a better participant in the meeting. It's not disruptive to the meeting, and it doesn't telegraph that I disrespect the others. So figure out what the benefit to you is. 3, figure out what the critical difficulties are. In my case, being on time is I always think I can just get one more thing done because I'm so task oriented. So the difficulty, the obstacle for me, is not calculating well how long one more thing will take. And weighing the gratification of getting it done against the gratification of being on time. 4, Make commitments. Write it down. Our brain processes things we write down through different neural pathways than when we just think it. Writing it down makes a commitment. An even bigger commitment is telling somebody. I am going to try to be five minutes early to every meeting this week. Then I've created some built in accountability. 5, Figure out what my commitment opportunities are. What if I wrote on my blackboard in my office or my whiteboard in my office, I'm going to be five minutes early to every meeting this week. Or told everybody at the meeting, sent an email, please hold me accountable. I'm trying to be five minutes early to everything so I stop coming late. And 6, Imagine what the obstacles are. Well, the obstacle is I get a piece of email right as I'm getting ready to leave and I think, I can answer this quickly and somebody else can keep working. Maybe I need to close my email ten minutes before the meeting starts, so I don't have that enticement. And then say to myself, I will change my conduct by x. Building a new habit in adults takes anywhere from two to eight months depending on how clear we are on what it is, that we have actionable goals, that we track them. So, for example, at the end of the week, I need to go back and say I went to 14 meetings and I was early for 12 of them and late for 2. And keep track of it, because metrics are part of what really make a difference in whether you can change a habit. Creating a habit, or overcoming a negative habit, there's no easy way. It takes hard work. It takes being conscientious. And it takes really wanting to do it. [MUSIC]