Changing Your Life With Small Habits
It’s easy to get in a rut. Maybe you want to change but don’t know where to start. Or struggle making a decision for fear of choosing the wrong one.
We all can feel stuck sometimes.
One of the questions I often receive is, “how can I move forward?”
You may feel pressure to make wholescale changes overnight. But focusing all your energy on large goals can be overwhelming.
A better place to start is changing small habits. If you want to transform your life, begin by making your bed.
The Power of Small Habits
Tiny habits at first seem trivial. After all, making your bed can feel mundane or even unimportant. Something that’s done before getting to more serious matters or forgotten altogether.
But small habits can make a world of difference in our lives.
Below are five lessons we learn from making our bed each day.
What We Learn from Making Our Bed
1) Small changes build momentum.
When we make a change, no matter how small, it gives us a bit of confidence. The wind begins to lift our sail. Perhaps imperceptible at first, but stronger each day. And soon the ship is moving again.
Making our bed provides a small sense of accomplishment. It creates the momentum needed to get up and make other changes.
2) The little things in life matter.
Tiny habits are often overlooked as not deserving of our mental energy.
But neglecting them is like building a home with a weak foundation. Everything on the outside will appear in working order. With time, cracks start to show.
Small habits allow us to build the routine, structure, and consistency necessary to achieve big goals. They provide the blueprint for making larger changes.
3) We can make a difference.
Many things in life we don’t get to choose.
But we can revamp our habits over time. They’re part of our world where we exert a sense of agency.
No matter what happens to us during the day, making our bed reminds us that we have the power to change our lives.
Navy Admiral William McRaven stated, “If by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”
4) Break big goals into smaller steps.
Rome was not built in a day. It was made brick by brick.
Starting small doesn’t mean we can’t think big. Breaking larger goals into smaller steps makes them more attainable.
For example, instead of setting a goal to clean the entire house, start by committing to cleaning just one room for several minutes each day.
If you want to get “unstuck”, start with incremental, achievable goals.
5) Don’t overthink.
Many mental health conditions are reinforced by avoidance loops — we feel depressed, stop engaging with life, and that makes us more unhappy.
The way to break this cycle is through action.
Making your bed is a concrete action that gets us out of our head and into the practice of doing.
Doing means consciously choosing to act regardless of how we feel, whether it’s raining or the sun is shining. We can act even when our brain tells us to avoid.
If you feel stuck, you don’t have to transform your life overnight.
Small habits like making the bed can be the first step in changing our lives.
