The Key to Starting a New Habit
Too often, when we aim to start a new positive habit, we go for the “big change”. You can see this most often in New Year’s resolutions when people who are currently doing no exercise at all will make a pledge to suddenly start going to the gym for one hour a day.
This is a great goal, but going overnight from no gym-time to one hour a day is very difficult to sustain for the majority of people. And yet, most people try it this way and then seem disappointed when their new “habit” lasts less than a week.
Rather than setting yourself up for failure, approach your new habits from a different angle. I was once given advice about starting a business that is also true of habit formation:
Think Big but Start Small
With your new goal or habit, aim high but start small. Don’t aim for an hour at the gym straight away, just aim for five minutes. Literally five minutes. Now you might think that is ridiculous, since you’ll almost certainly spend more time travelling to the gym than actually exercising but that’s missing the point: In the beginning, it’s not about the amount of time you spend at the gym, it’s about developing the habit of actually going to the gym.
If you finish the five minutes and feel like doing more, that’s fine, but try and keep the experience as short and as easy as possible. There are four good reasons for the five minute gym visit:
- You get success under your belt.
- It’s not unpleasant so you will feel less resistance to going again the next day
- It takes so little time that you can’t use “I haven’t got the time” as an excuse not to do it.
- You develop the habit
Once you have developed the habit then you can start building up the time you spend at the gym (10 minutes, 20 minutes etc). With the habit firmly established, it will be easier to build on it.
This approach can be applied to any habit. Instead of 20 minutes meditation, start with 30 seconds. Instead of one hour reading, start with two minutes.
Big goals are great but on the road to achieving them it’s better to start with small steps.
[...] is hardest. check out this article: How to Take Consistent Action: 7 Powerful Tips and this one: The Kaizan Blog
Pingback by Goals and how to achieve them... — June 23, 2009 @ 11:04 pm
Such great advice. I need to take this on board. When I try to start a new habit I go for gold and end up giving up after a few days.
[Reply]
Comment by Abigail — July 1, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
Why hasnt anyone told me this before. Its exactly right, because if you start too enthusiastic and overcommit, you give up so easily. I love this!
[Reply]
Comment by Emma — July 18, 2009 @ 9:36 am
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