The Best Strategy Ever For Sticking To It?
Today I want to share with you the most stupid simple strategy for reaching your goals and developing habits I have ever come across.
Without implementing this approach, what tends to happen is people follow through on their resolutions when their motivation is high, but fall back into old routines when their motivation is low.
When you apply this approach however, it’s virtually IMPOSSIBLE to fail at what you set out to do. People are reporting finally being able to make breakthroughs in turning things like exercise and healthy eating into lifelong habits.
This approach is using something Stephen Guise of Deep Existence calls Mini Habits.
What Are Mini Habits?
It’s the same basic idea that I recommend in my books of limiting yourself to 1-2 small, easily achievable goals you follow through with everyday until it becomes a habit, and then adding more over time.
Stephen takes this idea to a whole new level however based on the research in the areas of willpower and ego-depletion. All you need to know for now is that mini-habits rely on willpower instead of motivation, and therefore you don’t have to “feel like” doing them to actually follow through. This is because they’re so easy, it’s almost harder not to do them.
Here’s what a “mini-habit” would look like.
1. Do one pushup a day
2. Read 2 pages of a book a day
3. Do 30 seconds of meditation a day (one of my mini habits)
How Do Small Habits Lead To Big Results?
These are things so small, you pretty much can’t fail to do them. But the genius thing is that once you get started, you’ll likely go WAY past your goal.
If you do a single pushup for instance, the majority of the time you’ll think “what the hell, I might as well do a few more!”
If you only stick to doing a single pushup and that’s it, you’re STILL successful, and this feeling of success will give you a sense of satisfaction that keeps you moving forward every single day.
I suggest you read Stephen’s book for a more in-depth explanation on just how powerful this can be.
Who Needs This?
Even though I’m a pretty self-disciplined person, I still have my problems with habit development from time to time. This is because habits can actually take a lot longer than 21-30 days to develop.
There was a period where for a long streak that I was doing meditation for 5-10+ minutes a day. Then some days I would shoot for 15-30 minutes. When that started to feel overwhelming, I gradually fell out of the habit all together.
Fortunately I’ve picked meditation back up by setting myself a mini habit of 30 seconds of daily mediation. And to add to that, I’ve written it down on a sheet of paper that I keep visible so I always remember to do it each day. Even if I’m about to go to sleep I can knock out a 30 second meditation. You just CAN’T fail with this!
How Do You Get Started?
Check out Stephen’s book Mini Habits on Amazon and here’s a great post he did explaining the concept in more detail.