The most important consideration when building a habit.
Momentum Issue 56
This week, we’re not looking at a specific habit.
We’re looking at an idea that can be applied to all habits.
And that idea is consistency.
While it might seem boring, consistency is the most important thing when it comes to our habits.
This is the whole idea behind Momentum - do a little bit often, and you’ll build the momentum to keep going and to create a huge change in your life.
Importance
The habit of the habit is the most important.
In Gretchen Rubin’s book, Better Than Before, she says, “The habit of the habit is more important than the habit itself.”
The act of showing up to do the habit is more important than what you do. The act of sitting down to meditate is more important than actually meditating. The act of going to the gym is more important than what you do at the gym.
Consistency is more important than the details
“It doesn’t matter how good the plan is, if you don’t do it, you’re not going to improve.” - Sam’s Blog (paywall)
Getting it often is more important than getting it right.
Peter Bregman explains in his book, 18 Minutes,
“The world doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards productivity…. Be the good enough writer. That’ll keep you going. Because ultimately, the key to perfection isn’t getting it right. It’s getting it often. If you do that, eventually, you’ll get it right.”
“Forward momentum generates forward momentum. Mood follows action.” - Sam’s Blog (paywall)
This is a key idea in Jeff Haden’s book, The Motivation Myth. You can’t rely on motivation to get started. You need to start, and motivation will follow.
Implementation
In short, stick to your habits every day.
Here’s how you can do this:
Modify your habits so that they’re achievable every day.
Obviously, not all habits are achievable every day. But we can usually modify them to make it so we can do something every day. For example, you might have a writing habit. You could modify this to be: “Write at least one sentence every day.” This is something you can do, every single day, no matter what.
Similarly, you might want to make an exercise habit. If you make it something small like “Do one push up each day”, then you’ll never have any reason to skip it.
Make a daily list.
This is the most effective strategy I have found for daily habits.
Each quarter I have a new daily list of habits I’m going to do every single day. A few core practices stay the same, but some of them get modified. My daily list for this quarter is:
5+ minutes of journaling
5+ minutes of meditation
A 45 minute workout
10 minutes of stretching
8000 steps
Stick to your habits even when you’re not in the mood.
“If you only do work when it’s convenient or exciting, then you’ll never be consistent enough to achieve remarkable results.” - James Clear, Atomic Habits
Unfortunately, improving our habits can be hard work at times. But we need to stick to them as much as we can. Without consistency, it’ll be harder to achieve good results.
Articles
Here are some free links to articles you may find valuable.
Get 1% Better Every Single Day with a ‘Daily List’
3 Keys to Getting Amazing Results from Your Workouts
I think this is why growth is so hard for the ADHD among us