How Habits Make You Better
Small changes can optimize your progress.
This month, I have decided to do everything I can to make progress and record it for content. I want to show people that committing to good decisions is worth it and can lead to big results.
Part of this will be finding opportunities to alter my habits from bad to neutral, or from neutral to good.
Having moved near my job, I have been happy to have convenience when getting to work and back for lunch.
Until yesterday, I was getting a Didi (Uber-style app based in China) to work and back.
While 15RMB is like $2, it adds up every day.
I noticed some of the guys who lived further away would get the metro and then rent a public bike.
How are they spending less than me and coming from so far away.
Walking would be an option, but it’s cold up here.
So, I checked out the bike rental situation, and I love it.
I’ve also started doing this for boxing. This is a 3-kilometre journey, and I get there and back. It’s still often 15 RMB for double the distance.
Plus..
For around 15RMB, the price of one taxi ride, I can get a month’s pass.
The Math of Habits
The benefits of habits look striking when they’re scaled to a month, and then a year. The small change of riding a bike instead of a taxi will have the following benefits:
Cash Saved
There are around 21 weekdays a month. Minus a few days, I stick around at lunch.
18 days a week times 4 trips = 72 trips
With boxing…
13 boxing days a month times 2 trips = 26 trips
Total = 98 trips a month (Approx)
98 trips times 15 Kuai = 1,470 RMB a month ($204!)
This scaled yearly is $2,448.
For trips that are 1.5km.
Worth Changing
So by making this change, I’m saving a decent amount of my monthly income.
What else?
Calories Burned
I’m reading here that an hour of cycling burns around 404 calories.
It takes around 7.5 minutes to work and 15 to boxing.
So:
72 times 1.5km = 540
26 times 3km = 390
Total = 930 minutes
I’ll now be sitting on a bike exercising as opposed to sitting in a taxi for 930 minutes.
No brainer.
Back to the math…
930 minutes divided into hours
= 15.5 hours a month
15.5 hours times 404 calories
= 6,262 calories burned a month
Or 75,144 a year!
That’s a 21.5lbs in weight difference.
21.5 pounds of pure fat.
This is why the ‘Science of Habits’ books are the best when it comes to self-improvement.
What’s More?
I’ve mentioned that the trips to and from work take around 7.5 minutes.
This is the same amount of time it takes in a taxi.
I’m not actually taking more time to do these trips.
The only thing I’m sacrificing is screen time.
In what areas of your life can you let the compound effect work for you?
Do the math and make the change!
