3261: Do You Really Have to Practice New Habits Every Day for Them to Stick by Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 3261. Do You Really Have to Practice New Habits Every Day for Them to Stick by Kalen Bruce of MoneyMiniBlog.com and I'm your narrator Justin Malik, reading articles to give us a little step in the right direction every single day.

[00:00:18] And with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life. Do You Really Have to Practice New Habits Every Day for Them to Stick by Kalen Bruce of MoneyMiniBlog.com Every time I read about creating new habits, the term daily habits always pops up.

[00:00:42] You've probably heard it before. You must do this habit every day to make it stick. Your new habit should be a daily practice. I always had the question, does that really mean every single day, even weekends and holidays?

[00:00:57] I finally figured out the best way to approach new daily habits. Let me share what I've learned. Daily but tiny. The short answer to the question behind this entire article is yes.

[00:01:10] If you want a new habit to really stick, it needs to become a habit you practice every single day. Weekends and holidays included. You should even stick with it on vacations.

[00:01:22] It may seem overwhelming and possibly even undesirable to consider practicing a habit every single day of your life. If this is the case, your habit is too big.

[00:01:34] The first step when creating new habit is to make it small enough to be able to do it every day without interrupting your life significantly. If you can't accomplish your habit on those days when your dog is sick, your kid has soccer practice,

[00:01:48] and your in-laws just showed up for a surprise visit, your habit is not small enough. If you have a million things going on, your habit should be small enough to be the one million and first thing.

[00:02:01] Here are some examples of how small your habit may need to be when you're first starting out. Reading. One page each day. Writing. 50 words each day. Running. One minute each day. And calisthenics. Five reps each day. Seems too small, doesn't it? It's not. Let me tell you why.

[00:02:26] Tiny habit. Large time slot. I'm sure you realize that reading one page a day won't equate too much over time. That's why you schedule more time to read your one page than you need.

[00:02:39] If I schedule 15 minutes to read one page, it's likely that I'll be able to read much more. At least two pages, right? The beauty of it all is that even if you really do only have time for one page or one minute,

[00:02:53] that's all you have to do. That's the habit. If I schedule a one minute run every day, I'll make sure to schedule at least 30 minutes for that one minute run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

[00:03:06] So those three days are my real running days, but all that is required is still just the one minute. Once I put on my running shoes and head out the door, I can usually do more than a minute on the other days too.

[00:03:20] And anything over a minute is a bonus. Increasing the habit. The key to creating new habits isn't just starting small, it's also gradually increasing the habit. You should be increasing your habit gradually, but you don't have to increase your everyday habit.

[00:03:39] You build onto your daily habit means so far as it makes sense for your schedule. Your goal may be to run for one hour three days a week.

[00:03:48] So that means you should set aside an hour or a few of the days each week to complete your small habit. You'll always be running for one minute per day, but you should be gradually increasing to run more on your running days. What does that look like?

[00:04:03] Week 1, you run for one minute each day. Week 2, you increase to two minutes per day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But you still continue to do one minute on the other days.

[00:04:17] You'll be building up your three times per week run while maintaining the habit by just a minute each day. Once the habit of running three times each week sticks, you can get rid of the other days as long as you stay disciplined.

[00:04:31] You may have heard me talk about identity-based habits before. That's what this is all about. Becoming a daily reader or writer or runner or a financial expert one day at a time.

[00:04:44] Eventually, you may be running five or ten miles several times each week, but we're not there yet. I know you're not going to read a million books by taking it one page a day,

[00:04:55] but you will become a daily reader and that's the type of habit that will stick. There's always time to grow your habit. The important thing is starting it. And too often people don't grow their habits because they never get started.

[00:05:11] If you practice a habit every day, it will become an identity-based habit. You'll become a daily reader, financial expert, runner, weightlifter, etc. The most important thing. Nothing is more important than persistence. What happens if you miss your habit for some reason? Absolutely nothing.

[00:05:34] You just pick up where you left off. You're supposed to be practicing your new habit every day, but you're not a failure if you miss it. Maybe you forgot or you were sick or you were too busy making excuse of why you couldn't do it

[00:05:47] so you didn't have time to actually do it. The point is that if you mess up, keep going. A daily habit is the goal. You're on your way, but there will be setbacks since we're dealing with life here. Identify yourself with your new habit.

[00:06:09] You just listened to the post titled, Do You Really Have To Practice New Habits Every Day For Them To Stick? by Kaelin Bruce of MoneyMiniBlog.com And I'll be right back with my commentary. Thank you to Kaelin.

[00:06:23] A good one for me to use as a reminder because I tend to fall into all or nothing thinking every now and then. That's really how this podcast was formed.

[00:06:32] It was a bit all or nothing with releasing an episode every single day of the year no matter what. Before when this podcast was still new, I wouldn't be very far ahead with recording and inevitably something would happen like I'd get sick.

[00:06:49] And because of my all-or-nothing thinking, I'd record the intro and outro, sometimes even from bed and then play a section of an audiobook that I previously made for The Minimalists. Those were difficult days. That kind of thinking all or nothing is not the best choice.

[00:07:08] More often than not, it seems to go the other way towards nothing rather than towards perfection. Definitely the case for me with exercising at least. In the past I'd try to do it every day, get sick, not surprising, and then stop altogether.

[00:07:25] Whereas these days, thanks to articles like this, I do it when I can, even if it's just a tiny bit. And I listen to my body, same with other practices like meditation. Checking in with my body, mind and emotions has been helpful here

[00:07:42] along with some self-forgiveness when I'm not feeling up to do a longer session of a practice. So nice reminder from Kaelin today. Thank you to Kaelin and thank you for being here every day with me. That's what's kept me going all these years.

[00:07:56] Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow. Where your optimal life awaits.