First of all, I’d like to say that I’m no expert when it comes to self-discipline and habit management.
But it’s something I started changing in 2024 and I’m noticing significant improvements in my life.
That’s why I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts on the subject.
My behavior change comes from the fact that I read the well-known book Atomic Habit (written by James Clear) at the end of 2023.
An extremely interesting book explaining in detail how to set up good habits and break bad ones. What particularly interested me in this book was the explanation of the psychology behind habits.
Why is this important ?
There is often a stereotype in society that points the finger at people who appear at first sight to be lazy.
But in reality, except for a tiny minority of people who really are, I think there are a lot of people who simply can’t manage to do the things they’d like to do in their lives.
They feel that their goals will take too much effort, that it’s too complex and that “ now isn’t the time ” to tackle such a big obstacle. The problem with this pattern is that it’s never the right time. And the obstacle never truly changes either.
This is where habits come into play, the aim being to make the effort out of doing a task by making it so habitual that you don’t even question whether you want to do it or not.
But of course, it’s easier said than done.
One thing I’ve learned in my web development studies is to break problems down into smaller ones.
If I take the example of going to the gym, it can be very intimidating if from the start you’re asked to be rigorous about your workouts, your meals, and your calories.
It’s doable if you’re a sportsperson , but seems almost impossible for someone wanting to get into this field.
So we need to take small steps, 1% at a time.
We often underestimate the importance of small actions in our lives, setting ourselves big challenges that are ultimately too complicated to achieve.
Instead of setting ourselves small goals daily, which, once accomplished, become small victories.
Using your daily routine
One way of easing the lack of desire is to use an action you do daily and attach a new action to it
For example, last month I wanted to start reading more books, but I couldn’t find the motivation to get started. So I proceeded as follows.
I looked at the parts of my routine that weren’t necessary or useful.
There are bound to be some, if, for example, after eating in the morning, you scroll on your phone for 15 minutes, then you can maybe try to replace this short time with reading.
It won’t be easy for the first few days, but if you succeed, it will become automatic to read after your breakfast.
Setting a time and place for a new action in your daily life removes a lot of the vagueness and makes it much easier to get started than to say to yourself, “It would be nice if I did it”.
Stop Being in Motion, Be in Action
I noticed at the start of the year that I couldn’t put in place all the habits I wanted to.
Some yes, but not all. That’s progress, but it was important to me to understand why I failed in the others.
I’ve noticed that I’ve managed to be regular on things I’d already started to put in place, the effort I had to make was to stick to a regularity, but as far as new habits were concerned, I remained stuck.
Probably because I was afraid to start.
I set myself the goal of starting to write, but I was afraid of making mistakes, so I asked around and took the time to think about the right way to do it.
But I realized at the end of the month that I hadn’t written a single line…
And that’s the problem, I was reassuring myself that I was making things happen, but I was wasting my time planning endlessly to make it perfect without ever getting around to it.
A lot of people apply this method to many aspects of their lives, but I think it’s a mistake. Because if you’re afraid of making errors, you don’t do anything at all.
That’s why I’ve decided to take it seriously, even if it’s not perfect.
Training comes with practice, it’s something that goes without saying for just about everyone, and yet many of us are blocked by the fear of taking the wrong steps along the way
So how do you make it happen?
To sum up, I don’t think there are any universal answers to this problem, I think the answer is different for each person. But there are a few points that I think make it easier.
- It’s easier to do 10 easy things than to do one difficult one.
It’s much easier to do 10 tasks that take 30 minutes each in a week than to do a 5-hour task all at once.
2. Combine what already exists with change
Use your routine to your advantage. For example, use a pleasant action that you do daily, then add a habit that you’d like to put in place.
As I’ve said before, setting a time and place on something can make it easier to achieve.
3. Don’t let criticism get in the way of your actions
Don’t try to achieve perfection initially. Although it may seem ridiculous to write a few lines a day or go to the gym for 15 minutes a week, starting the action can remove a huge block.
Thanks for reading !
I’ve summed up this subject, but it deserves to be dealt with in much greater depth, because it’s so important in everyday life.
I hope you found it interesting. It was my first article!
Don’t hesitate to give me feedback on the subject or on my way of writing, I’m sure it’s not perfect, but I’m confident that it will improve once the habit is established. 😄
