How to Begin and Stick to your Habits in 2023 Even when your Motivation is Negative
Tiny is the new big.
Every new year, we always try to make a promise to better ourselves.
Research has it that only 9% of the 41% of Americans who make their new year’s resolution achieve them.
This means that 91% of the people who will make their resolutions this year, will not achieve them.
This year can be different for us.
This article will share one of the keys to unlock your goals, and be among the successful 9% in 2023.
The magic pill of tiny habits
Leo is given the option to take the blue pill or the red pill in the movie The Matrix.
He chose the red pill which offered him the path of finding out the truth behind the lies of the matrix.
Life is a choice.
Everyday is a choice.
This moment is a choice.
What we choose to do everyday as far as our habits are concerned will go along way in ensuring we succeed and be among the 9%.
Tiny habit is the “magic red pill” that you need to choose.
James Clear the author of Atomic Habits alludes to this “magic red pill” in his 2 mins rule.
The 2 minutes rules states that when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.
- A goal to read 1 book per day becomes a paragraph per day.
- A goal to run 10 km per day, transforms to 1 km per day.
- A goal to eat healthy this year, is translated to eat a healthy breakfast.
- A goal to make 100 dollars online passive income becomes to make 1 dollars.
The secret behind the 2 minutes rule is to make a habit very easy to begin.
When your habit is hard to begin, you will always find excuses not to do it.
And even when you begin, you will soon loose the motivation to stick with it.
In 2022, I had a clear goal — to write 144 articles.
The problem is that it didn’t fit the 2 minutes rule.
Sometimes I would write a 5, 7 or a 10 minute article.
I stopped writing consistently 3 months into the year. I only did when I had the motivation to do it.
I stumbled upon this rule towards the end of 2022. I revised my new goal to meet the criteria of the 2 minute rule.
My new goal became, to write a 1-2 min article everyday.
A 2 minute article was so easy for me. I didn’t need my motivation monkey to begin.
Don’t rely on motivation.
Motivation is overrated. You can’t always control your motivation level, but you can split your goals into tiny pieces and you have control over the tiny pieces.
If your goal is to read a book per day, notice how big this goal is, you will probably succeed today when your motivation is high, but your motivation is not guaranteed tommorow.
This is the reason why you shouldn’t rely on motivation alone to drive your goals in 2023. Instead, find a way to be and stay consistent even when motivation is low.
The way to jump over your motivation energy is leveraging the power of tiny habits.
Make the behavior so tiny that you don’t need much motivation
Making your habits tiny will guarantee that you will do them without much thinking.
If you do the tiny behaviours repeatedly for the next couple of weeks, they will transform into habits.
Remember the goal of making your behaviour tiny is to eventually make them into habits.
Once they become habits, you will no longer struggle to do them since your brains auto-pilot part will automatically take over.
Brushing your teeth is an example of a habit that we don’t need to be reminded. It is done unconsciously. It is an auto pilot activity.
Tiny behaviours will also serve to make your habits easy and unconscious as brushing your teeth.
And once you succeed in making them habits, your next goal will be to grow your tiny habits to any level.
Always remember to start tiny. Tiny is the new big.
Review your 2023 goals today and check if they meet the criteria of the tiny habits.
Begin with they tiny first, until the tiny becomes unconscious habits or second nature, then grow them to the level you desire.
