Plan Choose a behavior (habit) that supports a goal. “Writing”
The Goal is “To write a book.”
Define your Minimum Success Criteria (MSC) — something clear and doable.
Example: Write for 15 minutes or write 1 page.
Pick your Target Days (like M/W/F).
Set the “Bar” low for both of these. NOT EACH DAY. And, not 5 Pages or 50 Minutes. A LOW bar.
Planning to succeed starts with choosing a rhythm you can repeat and a low frequency per week, and MSC.
Act Do the behavior. Or don’t. Either way, you’re generating feedback.
Record Use 1s and 0s to track your actions: 1 = did it. Achieved the MSC. 0 = didn’t.
Add a quick note. You’re collecting behavioral data, not guessing. By adding comments/notes, you affirm your intention and gather data—information about what is working and what is NOT working.
Reassess
After 4 full weeks, review your results.
What worked? What didn’t?
If your execution was 85% or better, raise the bar — update your MSC and/or Target Days/Frequency per Week.
If not, keep the same plan and build consistency.
Subscribed
Automaticity isn’t magic — it’s by design with PARR.
Some people hope their habits become automatic.
Most habit trackers? Unfortunately, they appear to miss the point.
30 days? Where’s the rhythm of the week?
What are the Target Days? Where’s the Minimum Success Criteria?
Where’s the Reassessment?
To build real habit strength, you need more than hope — you need a method.
They exist within a larger SYSTEM—your Behavior Echo-System™ (BES)
Curious about the BES and the upcoming Unified Behavior Model™ — 20 years in the making? Make sure you’re subscribed.
Let’s be clear—veryCLEAR:
Habits are not systems. And systems are not habits.
There’s an unnamed author who keeps insisting that habits are systems. They’re not.
Confusing the two muddles the mechanics of behavior change.
When it comes to your behavior, habits operate within a larger Behavior OS—an ECHO-SYSTEM (not ecosystem—ECHO as in reverberation).
It (behavior) is shaped by two powerful forces: your ENVIRONMENT and your THINKING—the stories you tell yourself.
This is why the other two books exist. 👇
This is why the Behavior Echo-System™ functions as both a diagnostic tool and a prescriptive guide for goal-directed behavior.
Where insight meets execution. Organizational Behavior Alignment™ turns your organization’s intelligence into action.
Built upon the UBM and Behavioral Echo-System™, it’s designed for the C-suite, executive teams, and division leaders ready to align behavior with strategy—for real results.
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Part II: P.A.R.R.—The Scientific Method for Habit Development and Behavior Change
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Behavior change prefers data—not loops.
Don’t Die with Your Music Still In You
Want better results? Start thinking like a scientist.
Not with lab coats and equations—just two basic questions:
“What did I try? Did it work?”
That’s the core message and method behind The Habit Factor’s habit development framework, P.A.R.R.
That’s also the heart of intentional behavior change.
We said it before:
Silly? Maybe.
Stupid? Perhaps.
Accurate? Absolutely.
You are the scientist. Your behavior is the experiment.
Change. Collect data. Reassess & Interate.
Plan. Act. Record. & Reassess. = PARR
What behavioral data are you collecting?
P.A.R.R. applies the scientific method to your life.
It’s not a theory. It’s a method. And it works.
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🔬 P.A.R.R. = Plan. Act. Record. Reassess.
Plan
Choose a behavior (habit) that supports a goal. “Writing”
The Goal is “To write a book.”
Define your Minimum Success Criteria (MSC) — something clear and doable.
Example: Write for 15 minutes or write 1 page.
Pick your Target Days (like M/W/F).
Set the “Bar” low for both of these. NOT EACH DAY. And, not 5 Pages or 50 Minutes. A LOW bar.
Planning to succeed starts with choosing a rhythm you can repeat and a low frequency per week, and MSC.
Act
Do the behavior. Or don’t. Either way, you’re generating feedback.
Record
Use 1s and 0s to track your actions:
1 = did it. Achieved the MSC. 0 = didn’t.
Add a quick note. You’re collecting behavioral data, not guessing. By adding comments/notes, you affirm your intention and gather data—information about what is working and what is NOT working.
Reassess
After 4 full weeks, review your results.
What worked? What didn’t?
If your execution was 85% or better, raise the bar — update your MSC and/or Target Days/Frequency per Week.
If not, keep the same plan and build consistency.
Subscribed
Automaticity isn’t magic — it’s by design with PARR.
Some people hope their habits become automatic.
Most habit trackers? Unfortunately, they appear to miss the point.
30 days? Where’s the rhythm of the week?
What are the Target Days? Where’s the Minimum Success Criteria?
Where’s the Reassessment?
To build real habit strength, you need more than hope — you need a method.
Share
P.A.R.R. strengthens habits by design, not by chance.
Each 4-week cycle offers the chance to increase both challenge and frequency per week and/or the MSC.
This isn’t guessing.
It’s progressive habit development — measured, adjusted, and repeatable.
GOODBYE “HABIT LOOP”
Ladders, not loops.
The popular “habit loop” is descriptive — it explains how habits behave.
Especially reactive ones.
But it doesn’t do much to help you build new habits.
And, it was developed by studying rodents.
You’re not a rat.
You can choose, plan, track, reflect, and adjust.
Rodents? Not so much.
You can act with intention. You can reassess your efforts.
What other creature on Earth can do that?
P.A.R.R. is built on choice, intention, data, and iteration — the same principles that drive real progress.
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Discipline is a habit, skill, and trait.
People say, “I’m not disciplined.”
The truth?
NOBODY IS BORN DISCIPLINED.
Discipline emerges from structure.
P.A.R.R. is that structure.
Doesn’t matter if you’re tracking watering your plants.
By tracking consistently, you will develop the ancillary habit of DISCIPLINE.
Why P.A.R.R. works:
It respects your human capacities: choice, intention, reflection
It uses data, not willpower or guesswork
It aligns with the real rhythm of your life
It generates automaticity and strength, one 4-week period at a time
Listen to the episode here:
» https://habits2goals.substack.com/p/part-ii-parrthe-scientific-method
The final twist: Habits do NOT live in a vacuum.
They exist within a larger SYSTEM—your Behavior Echo-System™ (BES)
Curious about the BES and the upcoming Unified Behavior Model™ — 20 years in the making? Make sure you’re subscribed.
Let’s be clear—very CLEAR:
Habits are not systems. And systems are not habits.
There’s an unnamed author who keeps insisting that habits are systems. They’re not.
Confusing the two muddles the mechanics of behavior change.
When it comes to your behavior, habits operate within a larger Behavior OS—an ECHO-SYSTEM (not ecosystem—ECHO as in reverberation).
It (behavior) is shaped by two powerful forces: your ENVIRONMENT and your THINKING—the stories you tell yourself.
This is why the other two books exist. 👇
This is why the Behavior Echo-System™ functions as both a diagnostic tool and a prescriptive guide for goal-directed behavior.
Where insight meets execution. Organizational Behavior Alignment™ turns your organization’s intelligence into action.
Built upon the UBM and Behavioral Echo-System™, it’s designed for the C-suite, executive teams, and division leaders ready to align behavior with strategy—for real results.
LEARN MORE HERE!
Keep on trackin’ ✅
~mg
📄 Grab the free habit tracking template: thehabitfactor.com/templates
The Trilogy:
The Habit Factor®: Daily wins for long-term goal momentum.
The Pressure Paradox™: Productivity, Performance & Peace of Mind.
EVERYTHING: The stories you tell yourself heavily influence your behavior.
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