Create Lifelong Habits
By TrickMyMind | November 16th, 2020
Improve Your Life
There is a simple process that makes creating a lifelong habit ridiculously easy and can be used to achieve any goal you have. It does take a little bit of patience, but is proven to get around psychological barriers that occur when it comes to change. By adopting the 5 step process below, you can methodically change your life for the better.
Process Steps
Step 1: Select an area of your life to improve.
Step 2: Think of repeatable actions that will help you to improve in that area.
Step 3: Break down each action into its smallest form...a mini-action. A mini-action is something that is extremely easy to do, and can usually be done within 15-30 seconds.
Step 4: Regularly perform each mini-action. The more frequent, the better.
Step 5: As your mini-action becomes habitual, you can periodically increase the amount that you do. You will know you have formed a habit when you no longer need a reminder, and it is automatic. As a general rule of thumb, it takes about 63 occurrences to form a habit.
-- Repeat for each area of your life that you want to improve --
So, why does this work?
We humans are highly resistant to change. However, if the change is BOTH small and easy to do, then the resistance barrier is reduced to virtually zero. And then, by repeating the change periodically, it becomes a habit, and our natural instincts take over to automatically do more of it.
The key to success is to focus first on forming the habit, as opposed to focusing on the results. Also, think of your action and mini-action as the upper and lower boundaries of a range. You can do any amount within the range anytime, but the key is to always at least do your mini-action.
Examples
Example #1:
Area to Improve ⇨ Fitness
Action ⇨ Exercise 30 minutes 3 x week
Mini-Action ⇨ Do 2 x pushups every day
Example #2:
Area to Improve ⇨ Learning
Action ⇨ Read 1 book every month
Mini-Action ⇨ Read 1 paragraph every day
Example #3:
Area to Improve ⇨ Finances
Action ⇨ Save $500 every month
Mini-Action ⇨ Save $5 every week
Example #4:
Area to Improve ⇨ Diet/Nutrition
Action ⇨ Eat a salad 5 x week
Mini-Action ⇨ Eat 1 vegetable every day
Example #5:
Area to Improve ⇨ Sociability
Action ⇨ Become more social; make new friends
Mini-Action ⇨ Say "hi" to people you see
Example #6:
Area to Improve ⇨ Productivity
Action ⇨ Complete my to-do list. (Stop procrastinating)
Mini-Action ⇨ Do just 2 minutes of a task
Download our app which follows this process to help you improve your life.
Last Updated: October 30th, 2022