Tiny Habits
Tiny Habits
By Shane Sauer
Can you believe that COVID has been with us for a year now?!
Yeah, I know, it seems longer.
When this nightmare began, did you embark on anything new to pass the time? If so, did you stick with it? If not, how come?
I ask these questions because this month I have been giving you concrete methods for how to make changes. Methods that help you connect to the change emotionally and overcome a “lack of willpower”. And today I want to continue that discussion by offering you a tool that is so incredibly easy that it’s almost embarrassing.
In fact, that is the reason this tool works so well!
In a nutshell, you want to take the habit or skill you are trying to create and break it down into its smallest possible task. A task that is so simple that you could do it on your worst day and you would be EMBARRASSED to tell someone you didn’t do it!
Here is my personal example from the last year. I wanted to learn how to do a handstand comfortably in the middle of the room. So, I decided that each day I would do at least one handstand against the wall. With my current skill set and fitness level I could do that almost anywhere, without warmup or injury risk, and with a less than 30-second time commitment. And if someone asked me about it that day and I hadn’t done it, I would do it right then rather than say I hadn’t!
A similar example might be someone wanting to get into a workout habit and committing to do a pushup every day. Or someone wanting to food log and committing to opening the tracking app on their phone. Or starting a meditation practice by committing to taking one deep breath a day.
Now, I bet you’re thinking that these things seem so small and silly that they couldn’t possibly help. But they do! And here are 4 reasons why:
The task is so small it actually gets done.
It’s an inertia breaker. Once that first one happens you tend to do more.
It’s a momentum and confidence builder because...
Instead of being someone who can’t or wants to do something you now perceive yourself as someone who does that thing.
Don’t get me wrong, change like this doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be patient and persistent. This tiny goal is also designed to be a fallback from an intermediate and advanced task. Something to keep you moving forward on the days that you just can’t fit the larger ones in.
Give it a shot! If you need some help to figure out what your task should be, reach out to me. I am happy to give you some ideas.
And if you’re still not sure this can work, the proof is in the pudding.