Why You Can’t Stick To Your Habits
You’re probably comparing your day 1 to someone else’s day 100
“I’ll bike to work every day until I get to a weight I like, then I can stop exercising for life!”
An older relative said this to us. My brother pushed back, but we had to leave so we couldn’t deep dive into the conversation. The entire time I was thinking about how to articulate my answer.
If I had an extra 20 seconds, I would have told him that he should focus on building a lifestyle around being healthy. He should build his habits as if he had to do them for the rest of his life. This way, he can optimize against burnout.
Guide to Quitting a Habit as Fast as Possible
Set unrealistic expectations. First time going to the gym? Pretend you’ve always been going to the gym! Do 5 exercises and stay for two hours.
Satire aside, we need to realize it’s important to make tasks easy. Tasks become much scarier when we think 20 steps ahead. The solution to that is to break it down in our minds.
Today, I have to go to the gym for 5 minutes.
Want to stay longer? Stay for 10 minutes. Want to leave? Then leave! You did good today.
