ADVICE
One Minute Secret Adds One Minute Each Day in Forming a New Habit
Small actionable steps give wings to grand ambitions.
Our habits give direction to life. Implanting behaviors voicing potential growth requires attuning to good habits. The actions that we inhabit characterizes our identity. Through identity, our life gets its shades.
From the place of habit, our goals get their course. The aspired aim holds the power to shape our lives. It can either transform or can crumble us down. As such, we need to be vigilant concerning the goals we set. We cannot take the goals for granted and silence them through our non-performing actions.
Becoming a civil servant is my dream since childhood. The tuff nature of the exam immersed me in its seriousness. The daily routine planned was strictly disciplined as my goals had an uncertain touch. I had to count on that each moment of mine remained productive. And my goal gets its needed traction.
The routine that I formulated for goal achievement was rigorous. Its strictness distanced me from regular life events. In the initial phases, things ran smooth. At the succeeding stages, cracks appeared. The setting of the high-end goals thrilled me, but the heavy routine left me churned up. Well-defined and grand goals are important in life, but we should not spend thinking about them too much.
Sometimes the grand planning requires change.
Grand ambitious goals exert tremendous pressure. Strict plans at the start might make the goals appear daunting. The objective truth outlines that human ability to follow with their best intentions and implement that ability or change any of the individualistic behaviors is independent of the reason. Rather than the reason, it actually depends on the depths of the individual convictions and on the willingness to how bad we are in goal attainment.
“The big audacious goals are essential to motivation, but they are too blunt to provide daily guidance or satisfaction,” according to the Harvard Business Review.
The grand goals followed by the rigid routines demand great efforts from us. Faced with the seemingly huge and overwhelming difficulty, people freak out or freeze up, or get scared by the goals’ gigantic nature. To the majority of us, a stern routine engenders a robust culture.
The grand, ambitious goals challenged me. Because of the rigorous routine, my health showed alarming signs. During the pandemic, relying on motivation helped me redirect my focus on health that got misaligned from its actual course. This time again, the ideas laid were grand. Initially, keeping up with the schedule was easy. In the later stages, I sailed back from my devised plan. All the grand preparations that remained designed to foster healthy living closed up as a drastic failure.
The law of the least effort indirectly holds power.
We think of being the best at everything we do. We set high standards to become good at the goals aspired. But forcing self to become too good at things from the start can flag failure. Being good connotes that both our efforts and motivations must be in parity with each other. To an extent, this synchronicity is achievable. The trouble brews with high-end goals.
The harder you aim for anything, the added efforts it requires, and increased motivation remains demanded to complete the task. As such, we depend on motivation to wipe our problems gently. Sadly, motivation is not our reliable friend. They come and go like the seasons.
On the evolutionary chart, the studies depict that humans tend to incline towards the “Principle of Least Effort.” It infers that all living forms and well-designed machines naturally chooses the path of least resistance or effort. For most of us, cultivating new habits or behaviors is challenging. It is because these habit formations require a change from pre-existing behaviors. And the change in itself is tough. Because of the regressive attitude towards change, people naturally cling to the routines that require the least effort.
Based on personal experience, what I needed was not a strict schedule. After failing at it, I re-planned the calendar, followed the least effort principle, and allocated one minute daily into activities that can spring up a hearty life. At the preliminary stages:
- Meditating for even a minute helped me regain focus.
- A walk, even for a minute in the day, left me nature connected.
- Writing quotes daily for a minute hugged me with optimism.
Periodically the daily one-minute practice of encouraging healthy habits mellowed to 15 minutes and so on. The law of minimal effort walks the talk and is an outstanding hack to achieve end goals. While anchoring high goals, the probability of scoring a win seems a tidbit difficult because the giantness of the goal scares us, multiplies pressure, and commands increased efforts. Sometimes more than what remains required from us.
As earlier mentioned, the more effort demanded, the higher is the human tendency to withdraw from the goals. The majority quits it half-way. If you want to be better at anything, the only prerequisite is that — stop trying to be exceptionally good at things at the start.
Growth thrives in the succession of small wins.
Adapting microscopic habits is a bridge joining the end-goals. Our growth is a step-by-step process. And not lives in instant transformation. When we quickly jump on to exercising the grandeur routines, the newness might attract us, but eventually, it quells fears, and we remain burned out. With teeny habits, one tends to practice it without giving much thought.
On the days when our routines are unplanned, lacks motivation, and when we shred away from becoming our intended self, then trusting in tiny habits can rescue us at our doors and makes us progress a little every day.
- Try meditating and praying for even a minute.
- Try challenging exercises for even a minute.
- Dedicate even a minute to playing cognitive games.
Forming behaviors that require the least effort welcome habits that last long. When we do one better thing each day, at least for a minute, our goals appear easy. While treading on these minuscule habits, we must remember that our goal is not about accomplishing something huge. Instead, regularly attuning to these habits can open the gateway to our high intended dreams.
Embracing the “Better Than Nothing” approach.
One should not stress over being too good. We don’t need to hover around heavy routines to carve the best version of ourselves. Being average also helps achieve our end-goals. Sometimes taking it simple answers.
The “Better Than Nothing” approach is independent of motivation. It implies attention-orientedness to the minute shifts in planting daily habits. These habits are simple to build, easy to establish, and do not dance as stressors.
When it comes to pursuing our goals, mastering a skill, or finding a deeper sense of purpose, then doing something and taking some action is always better than doing nothing at all. When we keep our grand plans aside temporarily and adapt to a minuscule habit, then at least doing something becomes better than doing nothing at all.
Initiation of new behaviors is often the most challenging. To embrace such challenges, one can get started with tiny routines. The tender actions taken activate our minds. It generates a neural pathway to the brain, indicating that a new habit remains formed. Furthermore, it increases the probability that something highly ambitious can be achieved down the line.
We all have those moments — moments when we lack drive, motivation, and passion for things. Sticking to minuscule habits benefits us even if we remain tired, demotivated, or distressed. As time traverses, the habits tend to expand naturally. Relying on these habits re-watered my life with enthusiasm. As time passed, I naturally became inclined to keep up with it more.
Remember, the moment we become unambitious is when the doors of negativity strike. People turn lethargic and misuse their time on irrelevant stuff, and end up risking every aspect of their lives. With that, the rigid routine invites difficulty, force, and exertion that brings procrastination.
To align with the goals you set, cultivate the habit of doing something daily. When I became consistent and good at adapting these habits, moving closer towards higher goals felt smooth. It is only through these small shifts in our routines, the seeds for grand ambitions get implanted.
The American Social Scientist and Author Brian Jeffery Fogg collate his views on the importance of building tiny habits and delicately sums it as:
“If you pick the right small behavior and sequence it right, then you won’t have to motivate yourself to have it grow. It will just happen naturally, like a good seed planted in a good spot.
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