In the workplace, people with good habits tend to be more successful.

For example, some people are used to learning new knowledge, some people are used to writing reflections, and each habit brings them endless wealth.

Good habits are very important for everyone.

However, it is not easy for most people to develop a good habit.

I often see such people in the circle of friends. They changed their avatars to "don't change their avatars if they don't lose 20 pounds." After a year, they didn't change their avatars.

People are always naive to think that by telling others about their goals, they can motivate themselves to accomplish them.

The result was that the goal was not achieved, and the skin was getting thicker and thicker.

Some people also try to find a friend to travel with, such as making an agreement to go for a run to lose weight.

In the end, either A has something to do, or B has to work overtime. All in all, the final plan is gone.

Walking with people allows us to get things done better, but once the person walking with us has a problem, the motivation is lost.

Others believe that goals cannot be achieved because they have not set reasonable goals.

So they set their goals "just right" according to their actual situation.

The results of it? Still lost.

Because they slowly discover: Even if the goal is not achieved, bad things will not happen.

Regarding the formation of habits, it must be mentioned: the 21-day habit formation method.

The "21-Day Habit-Building Method" believes that as long as you repeat the same thing for 21 days, you can form a habit.

Is it really?

The conclusion is not so, there are countless people who have persisted for 21 days and still have not formed the habit.

This statement is actually a misunderstanding.

Dr. Maltz found that people need 21 days to adjust to this fact after amputation.

Later, it was continuously exaggerated and publicized by the media, and the result became the current "21-day practice".

This doesn't work, it doesn't work either. How can we develop a good habit?

In the United States, there is a nerd Stephen Gass who became interested in habit formation. He began to try one habit formation method after another, and most of them ended in failure, because he was too lazy, and these goals came to him. Say, it's just too hard. However, there is a way to help him develop the habit of fitness, this method is "do a push-up every day".

1. The Uniqueness of Micro Habits =================================

What are mini habits?

Micro Habits are simply "shrinking" the habit you want to develop, as small as the simplest, and as small as impossible to fail.

For example, if you want to develop a fitness habit, so plan to do 100 push-ups a day. If you use the mini-habit strategy, you should change the plan to "1 push-up a day".

1. Why traditional habit-building methods don’t work, but mini-habit strategies work?

This is because everyone's willpower is limited. When your willpower is used up, and you are asked to implement your own plan, you will naturally resist, the plan will not be able to be implemented, and it will be difficult to form a habit.

The mini-habit strategy has narrowed the goal to the extreme. Even if you feel very tired, it is very simple to complete the mini-habit.

For example, if it is the same habit of doing push-ups, if you come back from work for a day to do 100 push-ups, you may refuse;

But if you just do 1 push-up, your resistance will not be so strong, and you can easily accomplish your goals.

2. Why does habit formation always fail? Micro Habits do not

If you've ever tried to form a habit, you must have gone through two mental journeys: "the beginning was hard" and "the journey was hard."

Everyone has their own comfort zone. Once they step out of the comfort zone, there will be strong protests both physically and psychologically, and they will complain wildly: "Doing this really makes me uncomfortable!"

The farther out of the comfort zone, the louder the protests.

Until the habit is fully formed, the inner protest will continue.

While Mini Habits can also step out of your comfort zone, it’s just a small step, not even a small step, on the edge of your comfort zone.

Before the body has time to protest, you have already completed your goal, and it is naturally easy to achieve.

3. Mini Habits Can Overcome Fear

If you are asked to complete a 2000-word article immediately, you will definitely have a fearful mentality.

2000 words is not an easy thing for most people.

So there's a good chance you'll choose to procrastinate, and you'll keep procrastinating until the next time you make a similar plan on a whim.

However, mini habits do not.

The same is the writing goal. The goal of the mini habit is to write 10 words. This is a very easy task. You can easily complete it in less than a minute.

So, you won't have any fear at all.

Of course, in most cases, people don't just write 10 words once they start writing.

You might write 20 words, 200 words, 2000 words, or even 20,000 words...

Yes, mini habits are so magical.

So, how do you get started with a mini-habit strategy?

Second, the operation method of micro habit

1. Select a target

Write down the goals you want to achieve on a piece of paper, you can write about fitness, writing, reading.

Then, keep shrinking them down to the point that you can easily do it.

Change the fitness goal to "1 push-up a day", the writing goal to "write 10 words a day", and the reading goal to "read a paragraph a day".

Because Micro Habits consume very little willpower, you can create several micro-plans at once.

But the number is not the more the better, it is best not to exceed 4 at a time.

If there are too many, people's energy will be dispersed, and the consumption of willpower will also increase.

2. Mining the Intrinsic Value of Mini Habits

Why do you want to make a habit? You have to ask yourself this question.

For example, why do you want to develop a fitness habit? You might answer for your health.

Why be healthy? Because a healthy body can work better and take better care of your family.

It turns out that your fitness goals are so meaningful that you will be more motivated in the future execution process.

For another example, you want to get up at 5 am every day, why?

Because you found that many successful people have the habit of getting up early.

It's kind of blind for this purpose, because you don't understand why successful people wake up early.

One day you will wonder, "Why do I have to get up early?" If you can't answer this question, sticking to the habit of getting up early will be meaningless.

Then there's a good chance you'll go back to square one, thinking that getting up late isn't a big deal.

3. Record and track

Recording can help you better manage yourself, and tracking can help you understand why you didn't accomplish your goals at the time.

Many celebrities have the habit of recording and summarizing. No matter where they go, they will carry a small notebook and keep records.

Of course, we don't need that complicated now.

Today's software and small programs are very developed. You don't have to run around with a notebook and a pen on your back. You just need to open your phone, download the corresponding software, and check in after completing the goal.

What is even more surprising is that many punch-in software can now view punch-in records, allowing you to know how many days you have executed at any time.

4. Micro start, over finish

You must be wondering "Why make such a tiny plan? What's the point of doing one push-up?"

The answer is that because the goal is small enough, we can exceed it.

When you've done a push-up and you still feel like you have strength, you can do a few more, or do a few squats along the way.

As long as you start to execute it, your body will not stop like eating Xuanmai chewing gum.

What if you don't have the energy to accomplish more goals? Does everything still make sense?

It makes sense, as long as we can achieve the lowest goal, we can form a habit, and the habit will reduce the consumption of willpower and give us more power to complete more goals.

Mini Habits will keep you progressing and overachieving.

5. Get rid of high expectations

Expectation is a guy who doesn't know how to meet it. Even though you set a goal of "doing one push-up a day", Expectation has secretly added weight.

Expectation value found this goal too easy to achieve, so it swelled, and it thought it was time to increase the difficulty.

On a subconscious level, when you overachieve your goals, your brain sets new goals and exceeds your previous goals.

For example, your goal was originally "do 1 push-up a day", but your subconscious has secretly modified it to "do 100 push-ups a day".

Clearly, this goes against the very purpose of the Mini Habits strategy.

When you execute with this goal, it's not a mini-habit, and the failure rate increases.

6. Look out for signs of habit formation

As we said earlier, the statement of "forming a habit in 21 days" is not reliable. Different people, different habits, and the time to develop a habit are different.

If these kinds of signals appear on you, it means that the habit is really formed!

1. There will be no resistance: when you start the behavior, it will be as simple as walking, even if you don't execute it;

2. Don't think about it: You don't think about whether to do it or not, you just start executing it.

3. No apparent mood swings: You don’t get particularly excited about doing it yourself, it becomes a very normal part of your life, even though it may seem a little boring.

3. Why do your "mini habits" fail? ==================================

Although the "mini habit strategy" has been called "the habit formation method that cannot fail," there are still many people who fail when implementing it.

For example, after doing "one push-up a day" myself for half a year, I suddenly stopped.

Why do our "mini habits" fail?

1. to deceive oneself

The goal of Mini Habits is so simple that we can't help but make it harder.

Even though the schedule says "1 push-up a day," I actually ask myself "100 push-ups a day."

After all, I couldn't fool myself. When I secretly modified the target and performed the seemingly same behavior, there was a voice in my brain complaining: "This guy is going to start cheating again!"

When the brain realizes that you are cheating on it, it will resist and cause the mini-habit to fail.

Don't raise your expectations. If your expectations are lower, your motivation will be stronger.

2. When there is resistance, it continues

Countless chicken soups are telling you: "Only hold on, you will win!"

This is not recommended for mini habits.

When you feel resistance, the mini-habit strategy is to immediately modify the goal, make the goal smaller and simpler to the point of no resistance.

For example, if your goal is to read, but you are not even interested in reading a paragraph, then the strategy of mini habits should be to change the goal to open the book once a day.

Yes, just turn it on, it's that simple.