Read this if you want to kickstart a new habit of your desire!
This post is about the importance of finding your “bare minimum” to kickstart a new desirable habit!
If you want to change and wish to implement a new habit in your life, you have to start somewhere.
This somewhere differs greatly from person to person, and I strongly believe that success relies heavily on finding the most realistic starting point for the habit you want to pursue.
I also believe that there is almost no lower boundary for what your starting point can be, as long as you stay consistent and gradually make tiny improvements.
Set the bar too high, and you will struggle to be consistent, and your habit won’t stick. I certainly know that I have failed many times because of this.
The key to finding this starting point is honesty with yourself about what you are realistically able to commit to.
That is the most important thing.
If you can commit and stay consistent while making sure to make tiny improvements over time, you will soon realize that the smallest changes over a long period of time can compound into huge improvements in your life and happiness.
Your ability to be honest with yourself about how low you should set your bar when starting to do something new is vital for your ability to succeed.
I would rather set it lower than higher because I know that this will greatly increase my chances of committing and staying fully committed. As long as I am fully committed and able to stay consistent, I know that at some point I will be able to accomplish way more than I would ever think possible.
It is not easy to accept how low your starting point should be. This is especially not easy in today’s modern world, where you are bombarded with the great achievements and amazing routines of other people through social media.
You can easily fall into the trap of comparing yourself with others, and that can be very harmful for you considering that the people you see, or follow are probably some of the best at what they do and have dedicated a great deal of time and energy into that one single area where you want to approve.
If you have that problem, remember that they too had a very low starting point at the beginning of their journey. Also remember that you almost always see the great achievements on social media and seldom the failed attempts, but that the failed attempts are vital and necessary for growth and success.
If you stop making these unfair comparisons and instead focus on comparing yourself with yourself from yesterday, you will have a great foundation for improving little by little every single day, and when you succeed in these gradual improvements, it feels great.
Do it over a long period of time, and it feels amazing to know what you are able to accomplish.
Time is going to pass anyway, so why not spend at least some of it more deliberately?
A very real example from my own life:
I clearly remember the exact challenges I had the times I tried to start a habit of exercising to build muscles through calisthenics from home.
When I finally pulled myself together, I had this mindset:
“Finally, I manage to take the time and get started. NOW I HAVE TO make the most of it and push myself to do as many exercise routines and repetitions as possible!”.
Then I pushed myself so hard that I was completely exhausted and, as a result, too demotivated the next time I had planned to exercise.
This resulted in one big workout in every blue moon instead of the many consistent workouts you need to reap the long-term benefits.
I therefore tried a different approach to finding my bare minimum for ensuring consistency. It was painful to admit to myself at what level my bare minimum was.
It turned out that it was one tiny push-up (on my knees), but I knew that I would be able to commit to it every second day.
Doing this alone will not get you far, though you can argue that 182 push-ups on your knees in a year are better than no exercise at all.
The bare minimum is only set in place to help you start and practice the habit to the point where the beginning of doing the exercise is something you just do without thinking about it.
In order to progress and reap the compound benefits of showing up consistently over time, you also need some type of rule to make sure that you are gradually improving.
My rule was simple. I had to add a minimum of one repetition of either the exercise I already practiced or one repetition of a new exercise routine that I wanted to include in my exercise habit.
Of course, you will need to make up your own tailor-made rule for making sure to progress without compromising your motivation to stay consistent.
Soon after I started, the habit began to stick, which saved me a lot of mental energy on getting started. I just did it without thinking about it. I also quickly began to add more than one rep and often added multiple reps, and soon I had a pretty decent workout program.
After a couple of months, I felt like the repetitions in my workout program were enough for what I wanted, and I changed my rule. Instead of adding reps every time I exercised, I now increased the intensity every week instead.
Since then, I have continued to increase reps and intensity, and I now have a solid workout program with 9 different exercise routines and 257 reps in total done 3 times a week.
Now I increase the intensity in my set or add some exercise routines every month to gradually improve further to make sure I am continuing to be deliberate in my improvement.
I can honestly say that I have never been as committed to any form of exercise until I started on this approach. I now look better, feel better, have more energy, and am generally happier in my overall life.
All of this is because of a manageable start and one tiny push-up as a kickstart of a habit now done consistently over time.
If you have a hard time starting and committing to a new habit that you want in your life, I recommend giving this “find your bare minimum” approach a shot.
If you struggle with motivation, set the bar even lower. The most important thing is that you can be consistent in what you have chosen to do while making tiny, gradual improvements.
Remember that time is going to pass either way, and I can guarantee that it is a lot more fun to look back at a period of time where you tried to improve rather than not trying.
I sincerely hope that you will succeed in your quest to improve and start the new habit that will make the impact in your life that you need and that will make your life better.
Please let me know in the comments if you have had success using this method or if you want to try it out.
What habit do you want to start doing, and how low will you initially set your bar in order to stay consistent?
Thank you for reading this post!
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