How to create a new habit?
Part 2
A journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu
90% of our gestures are the same as yesterday.
(Read this sentence again)
90% of our gestures are the same as yesterday.
If you’re thinking of changing by reproducing the same habits as before, you’re on a bad start.
Albert Einstein himself understood this: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". The facts are there, if you don't change your habits, then you just won't change, period.
Our daily life is dictated by our habits. If therefore we wish to change a behavior in ourselves, we must change our habits. And to change our habits, we must repeat this new gesture.
Unfortunately, it is in repetition that we lose our motivation. The first days, everything is fine, a few days later, it's not the same. As explained in my last article, this loss of motivation is linked to our brain. It's a natural reaction.
However, we can trick our brain by playing against it and turn the habit principle into a mini-habit.
So here is the second option: Establishing mini-habits.
It is complicated to change our habits quickly. It takes an average of 66 days for a mini-habit to become a habit and, again, it is different for every human being. Our brain is fortunately quite slow establishing these new changes, and it’s a good thing. Imagine changing your behavior and mentality overnight.. hello instability!
What is a mini habit?
A habit is a gesture that requires no effort. This is the most important sentence of my article. A habit is a gesture that requires no effort (Yes I’m repeating myself and it’s important).
Following this logic, we will create a mini-habit that does not require any effort either. Makes sense, right ?!
The goal is to make your brain unaware of the task it’s doing. This task must be so small, that any internal discussion is avoided. For once, the brain will let you choose freely.
A mini habit should last between 30 seconds and 10 minutes maximum.
For example :
- Instead of wanting to go to the gym every day, try to do a 10 minutes workout per day,
- If you want to write a book, write 50 words a day,
- If you want to learn a new language, study for 10 minutes.
- If you want to eat better, eat an apple, pear, banana etc a day.
Why make mini-habits?
Making repetition easy
Remember that a habit, wether good or bad, becomes a habit through repetition. The more you repeat a gesture, the more you create a highway in your neuronal system.
By creating a daily effortless mini-habit, your brain won’t start resisting this new gesture.
Your mini-habit must be REPEATED EVERY DAY. Repetition leads to habit. Your brain must analyze this mini-habit as a new habit that does not take energy and time.
Create a sense of victory
Let me ask you a question:
Do you want to make a lot of sacrifices to only feel the results after 4 or 5 months?
Answer: Hmm ... honestly, no!
For humans, wanting to write an entire book, run a marathon, have a dream body or even speak a new language fluently are goals that are too long term. The results become tangible too far ahead. Your brain, by focusing only on the end result, will demotivate quickly. Too much effort for such a small victory.
The idea is to have a goal in mind and cut it into several mini-goals to create mini-habits.
The mini-habits are short and that’s what your brain loves. They do not require energy and they make you proud.
Proud ?! Yes !
Mini-habits create mini-victories. And who says victory says… .Dopamine !! (Yes yes I know, again) But the truth is there. If you do not set up mini-victories, you will never be rewarded and will end up demotivated very quickly. On the other hand, a victory makes you want to keep going. This is a bit of the same principle behind making to-do lists. Make a to-do list and create dopamine. A mini-victory yesterday, a mini-victory today and a mini-victory tomorrow!
We are used to setting up vicious circles, let's change it to virtuous!
Engage your mini-habit in order to work your habit
It's an interesting theory that I find extremely true.
Let’s try to explain it to you:
Newton - Law of motion - Second law: fundamental principle of dynamics
So yes, I see you coming: "Why is he throwing Newton at us? !!"
Don't worry, this one is easy enough to understand.
As explained before, the hardest part of creating a new habit is to start, to kick off. At this exact moment you are going to fight with your brain in order to know if it is really worth making this effort or not: “Am I going to the gym?”; “Do I want to write?”, “Should I learn Spanish?” etc.
Once your mini-habit has kicked off, it will set up a new movement, a natural movement, the one that will keep you going.
Imagine a car stopped. If you do not start the engine and get to first gear, your car remains immobilized. “Obviously” you may say ..
Logically, once the engine has started and the first gear is on, your car will hit the road.
It’s the same for us. Once you've just started your first action, here your mini-habit, you’ll naturally want to keep going.
Example: If you have the ambition to start working out, take as mini-habit doing a push-up or a squat per day.
At best, you will do more than expected, at worst you will only do the bare minimum, a push-up (or squat).
Warning, the mini habit must be extremely easy to achieve!
Imagine one of the worst possible scenarios: afterparty day (hangover, tiredness, hunger, in short the perfect combo for a junk-food and netflix day). You must be able to achieve your mini-habit. Here, do your daily push-up (or squat). In this case, I doubt that you are motivating yourself to do more, and that is normal. The importance is that you achieved your mini-habit.
Here are the golden rules to integrate a mini habit:
● The mini habit should last between 30 seconds and 10 minutes maximum. After this time, your brain will start to calculate the effort made and the reward received,
● It must be REPEATED every day (hence the importance of being a small task),
● It must be extremely easy.
In summary, a mini-habit is the perfect way to start creating a habit. A mini-habit is like an action plan that will allow you to achieve your personal project in the long term. One mini-habit per day becomes a habit at the end. If done well, it does not require much effort, doesn’t take time and still creates a sense of victory. If you can find a deep reason for wanting to change, building a mini-habit shouldn't be difficult. Most importantly, stay on course.
For this, the use of a trigger is useful. This theme will be developed in my next article.
And you ? When do you start your new habit?