Some years ago, I read a great little book entitled Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. He argues that good habits are hard to form (true!) and, therefore, most of us never establish them. A way to overcome this is to begin a “mini habit” which Guise calls “stupidly small.” They are so small that you don’t need either willpower or motivation.
For example, one mini habit he cites is to do one pushup a day. How much effort does that take? Not much. If you are in bed at night and remember it, all you have to do is hop out of bed and do one. Easy! The rule is that you must do one but don’t have to stop there. And, while you’re doing one, how easy it is to do two or three…or 10? I began this mini habit after finishing the book on June 8, 2015, over eight years ago. And guess what? I haven’t missed a single day yet. Guess what else? I now usually do 30 a day (but all I have to do is one!). No pressure. So, in the last eight years, I’ve probably done more than 80,000 pushups. Am I healthier because of it? You bet!