For better or worse, our habits define us and, if significant enough, can shape our future. The habits we practice every day, whether big or small, eventually add up as the sum total of our behavior. They impact our decisions, our actions and even our internal thoughts and feelings. Good habits can make us smarter, more physically fit and better at our jobs, while bad habits can make us stagnate — and possibly sabotage our own careers.
Accordingly, being able to positively change our habits (i.e., introducing new good habits and eliminating old bad habits) is one of the biggest keys to long-term success, no matter how you define that success. Of course, the issue here is that changing habits can be very difficult. Ingrained habits are ridiculously hard to stop; practicing a habit continuously reinforces it, making it harder and harder to break away from the pattern. And starting something new requires a surplus of focus, attention and willpower.
Related: 8 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs
So how can you do it? How can you form better habits as an entrepreneur?

Understand the anatomy of a habit

Your first job is understanding the “anatomy” of a habit. Why do habits form and what do they look like?
You can think of habits as unfolding over four mini phases:

• An initial prompt. First, there’s some kind of initial prompt. Something serves as a trigger that makes you want to do something. For example, you might pass a coffee shop on your way to work that reminds you of those delicious cappuccino drinks you love. Or you might hear a tone or feel a vibration whenever you get a new email.
• The craving. Next, the prompt triggers a craving. You see the coffee shop, so you start thinking about the taste of a cappuccino. You hear the ringtone, so you start feeling anxiety about what the email could be—and the fact that you should probably answer it immediately or something bad might happen.
• The action. In response to the craving, you’ll take an action. This is the heart of the habit. You pull into the coffee shop drive-thru to place your order. You pick up your phone and pull up your email.
• The reward. Finally, you experience a reward, usually in the form of released “feel-good” chemicals in the reward center of the brain. You might taste something sweet or feel a deep sense of relief by checking your email.