We're Confused About the Work We're Doing
When you're building a new habit, you're not working on running, meditating, or studying... you're working on moving an action from the place where you are "deciding to do it" to the place where you are "automatically doing it". That's actually a LOT of work!
Example:
Let's say the habit I want to build is to run 45 minutes 3x/week.
Let's also say that I'm running 0 minutes now (which is true).
The way I build this new habit is to start with running 1 minute 3x/week.
I want this action to be so small I can't NOT DO IT.
Why? Because I'm NOT working on running yet!
I'm working on making decisions like these:
- When will I run?
- How often will I run?
- How will I remember to run?
- What kind of reward/pay off makes running worth it to me?
- What will I do if it's raining?
- How will I prepare my environment to make going for the run easier?
I'm working on repeating that super-tiny action so many times that it feels a little weird NOT doing it!
Once that's true, adding more time will be easy (and my habit is MUCH more likely to stick).
What habits do you want to build?
If you want to study 1 hour a day (and you're studying 0 now), start with 5 minutes.
If you want to spend 30 minutes meditating (and you're meditating 0 minutes now), start with 30 seconds.
If you want to spend 30 minutes every day checking your emails (and you rarely check it now), start with 1-5 minutes a day.
Allow yourself to create the space for your new habit, and you'll build habits that last!