How to be a high performer: make these habits part of your everyday life

In part two of her series on resetting your health for spring, Anna Magee reveals the science of behavioural change that delivers your fitness and wellbeing goals

Tricking our minds can help us make significant lifestyle changes – and stick to them (Getty)

Think about your work life. You have a target for the next 12 months. You make a strategy, then a plan. You create spreadsheets and objectives, gather what you need – software, hardware, people – and set up KPIs and regular check-ins. Then each day you figure out what you need to do.

But when it comes to making changes to your lifestyle, you think “I will exercise more” and hope for the best. There’s nothing wrong with your willpower or personality. You just haven’t used the right tools.

Now a growing body of research into habits and behaviour is discovering the mental equipment we need to trick our minds into doing hard things.