[hutzlibu]

My guess is, he did not do anything different, he just finally managed to establish a routine. There are thousands of reasons out of your control that can help or block you. Mostly it is other people, though. One stupid person at the gym might be a reason to not go this day ... and that was it for the routine, as the next day, there is something else vs. looking forward to meet nice people again at the gym and having the time to do it.

[katzgrau]

True. And disruption to a routine can be fatal to the habit. Switch places to live, new SO, new school, kids, life events, etc.

Thankfully I don’t have any known disruption events on the horizon. But for little things, like when I have to fly at 6am I get up at 3/3:30 to get a quick (and intense) mile in around the neighborhood. And I workout in hotel rooms, etc.