The Habit Threshold
Having a tough time implementing habits? Or maybe you are good at starting but not good at persisting?
You are not alone.
We all understand the power of habits. How our thoughts become actions, our actions become habits, our habits become character, and our character becomes our destiny as Henry Ford said.
Knowing and doing are different.
There are two thresholds when it comes to implementing our habits. We must pass through these thresholds before we reap the benefits of our work.
The first threshold is starting.
I’ll start tomorrow.
I’ll start Monday.
I’ll start when I have more time.
I’ll start when I have more money.
We are all one excuse, or more, away from the life we want to live.
The first threshold is starting.
Start today.
The second threshold is persistence.
This is the tough one for me.
When it comes to starting, I am like a rabbit chasing carrots or a hound chasing a squirrel, eager to go and jumping at every opportunity.
However, when it comes to persistence, I get stuck.
Like most, I like to win. Immediate results and continuous results help me to keep going. But on a long time horizon, you do not see results daily, or weekly, or monthly, or even yearly.
My college basketball coach used to say “don’t be front runner.” A front runner is someone who only goes hard and pushes themselves when they are in the lead (when things are going their way). They are someone who starts to see a little bit of defeat and then gives up rather than overcoming.
I am a front runner.
But I am learning to persist and to stay the course despite the results.
The tough thing about the second threshold of habits is that there is not an exact timeframe for seeing results.
It is like when someone is new to exercise and they hear about all these people who say it is great, addicting, the best part of their day, but that is not the newbie’s experience. They are sore, tired, and miserable.
There is no timeframe that tells you when the newbie experience vanishes and you will begin to love exercise. It depends on the person: 3 months, 2 years…?
But at some point in time, exercise does indeed become an addicting and necessary part of your life, when you persist.
By way of another example, here is a visual of persistence and the long threshold that a famous philanthropist experienced before seeing exponential success:
Mr. Beast is a YouTuber and philanthropist. The growth of his Youtube Channel took 7–8 years to see an upward trajectory. Now it is skyrocketed.
20,000 million views 🤯
The threshold of seeing no success was 7–8 years.
That is persistence.
When it comes to building a habit, a business, a new life for yourself, let go of the expectation that it will pay off in a year.
Human potential lies on the other side of daily persistent commitments — habits.
The key to hitting the payout of your habits is to start and then, to persist.
