STARTING SMALL: HOW I BUILD HABITS THAT LAST
I've always dreamt about the perfect habits to go along with my perfect schedule. I've started so many habits that I thought I "should" be doing, but so many of them just don't stick. I used to get inspired, do the habit a few times, then completely forget about it, abandoning it and decide that I didn't want to do it in the first place anyways. Then I decided something had to change.
I find that there is a drive to do a new habit because other people are and I think it is something I "should" be doing. I believe that many habits can help my well-being and help me live my best life, however, I don't think that every habit is for me or even something I want to be doing. I've found that starting small with habits has helped me develop the practice and also helped me figure out if its something I enjoy doing and want to add more permanently to my life.
I often resist starting a habit because of how long my ideal version of the activity is. My brain perceives a lot of pain with time-consuming activities and often I just think that there isn't enough time to do the habit. Most of it is just resistance to starting.
Starting small helps me minimize the resistance. It helps me associate less pain with completing the activity because it won't last as long. It also helps me get rid of the excuse that there isn't enough time. Often, I will start small with a new habit as a way of testing out if it suits me and deserves a place in my life. Through trial, I figure out if it is beneficial to me, or if I am just doing it because it is trendy.
My small habits:
Daily walk: around the block (5-10 mins) at minimum
I know that both getting low-intensity exercise and fresh air every day is good for both my physical and mental health, but committing to an hour walk every day, sounds nice but isn't practical for my life. Getting out at least once helps me feel less cooped up in lockdown and maintains the daily habit.
Indoor cycling: 15 mins minimum
I love cycling and my usual winter consists of an indoor training schedule that involves at least 4 hours of riding spread over about 3 sessions. But sometimes that is the least appetizing thing to me and I would rather skip the workout than start an hour of suffering. When I'm getting back into the routine (as I am in January) I start with shorter length workouts and build on the length. I also let myself just do 15 minutes if I'm feeling resistance to starting, usually I will at least stay on for 30 mins to make the getting ready worth it!
Daily yoga: 10 mins
My ideal self would make time for an hour-long yoga session every morning, ideally while watching the sunrise, and in a beautiful setting, however, that is not my reality, so I instead try to just take some time to stretch every day. Whenever I'm struggling to get to the mat, starting a 10-minute yoga video is do-able and low commitment. Even 10 minutes a day had a benefit to my health and well-being and has allowed the habit to build. Now I do about 20-30 mins most days. My favourite 10-minute yoga videos from Youtube are Yoga with Adriene and Yoga with Cassandra.
Daily meditation: started with 5 mins
I'm building a daily meditation habit currently and to ease into it I decided to start with just 5 mins. I can easily sit for 5 mins listening to a guided meditation- no excuses there!
Daily journal: 5 mins or fill 1 page
As I've talked about previously, I have a daily journaling habit. The easiest way for me to start was to put on a timer for 5 mins and just write until it went off. I find it hard to "not have enough time" when I've only committed to 5 mins.
Starting small also allows me to go back to the small stage when the habit has developed. What I mean by this is that once I've grown the habit to a longer, more ideal length, if ever I'm not feeling like doing it or starting to make up excuses for why I don't have time, I can revert to the small version and still feel accomplished. I find it much more rewarding to do a small habit every day, (or more regularly) than to try to do an intense habit that I don't end up sticking with. Making the new habit as easy as possible to start has made such a huge difference in building habits in my life.
What habits have you managed to stick to? Have you broken them down into smaller habits at first? I would love to hear your experience with building habits- comment below!
