OConnell5483 wrote: »

Day 2 of Tiny Habits! I did find my email from Tiny Habits in my Spam folder, so that should be all taken care of now.

I did incorporate another one since it's something I have been trying to make into a habit but don't always take the time. I always have a more settled and serene day when I start my day sitting down and taking the time to say a prayer for the day. So...

• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will read one verse of scripture
• After I Finish dinner, I will pick out tomorrow’s outfit
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will wash my face
Adding: After I towel dry my hair, I will start my day with a prayer.

What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon! For example, after each cup of coffee I pour, I have been reading 5 verses of scripture. After dinner, I picked out my outfit which prompted me to pack my lunch also. and after I brushed my teeth at bedtime, I washed my face and went the extra step to moisturize it also. Only took extra minute but how cool if this continues!

This is a really awesome challenge this week. Loving it and it's only day two!

What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon!. Exactly!! At first glance, the examples that are given by the Tiny Habits program seem kind of silly. They actually suggest that one healthy habit to start with is flossing just one tooth. How can such a small habit amount to anything substantial?

Because you’re laying the foundation and mastering the small sequence of steps that are needed to make any habit stick. And because they’re so tiny, they don’t require motivation or willpower, nor send up “this is too hard” red flags to our naturally resistant to change brains.

We crawl before we run, we boil an egg before we attempt a soufflé. Build some small habits, learn the components and master the process and you will be UNSTOPPABLE.

Because you are clearly interested in habits, I thought I’d share some of the interesting things that I’ve learned about habits over the years. Here’s one.

Where did the “21 days to form a habit” come from?

The popular belief that it takes 21 days to form a new habit originated from Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s. He noted that after he operated on his patients, it took them about 21 days to adjust to the change in their bodies. In his best selling book, Psycho-Cybernetics, he wrote that:

“These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”

Keep in mind that these were just his observations. But because his book was a huge bestseller, the “21 days” got repeated over and over again and a key part of his quote, “requires a minimum of 21 days” got omitted altogether. As we see from social media today, the more things get repeated, the more people believe that they must be true.

How long a habit actually takes to form and become automatic varies widely. But it isn’t a cast-in-stone 21 days.

Now you know. If you are interested in learning more, see: https://jamesclear.com/new-habit

77tes wrote: »

If 21 days were a magic number, most New Years Resolutions wouldn't be toast by February. Sticking with a habit is what cements it. For instance, my putting on sneakers and drinking water first thing habits got derailed by a family medical crisis, Christmas, and 2 bouts of the flu. Having to forego those habits for a while means they are no longer automatic. On the other hand, because they were automatic before the interruption, I miss them and want to get back to them. This week, they are easier than the new habits.

So true! Habits we had in the past are much easier to resurrect and move to the forefront again than brand new habits. And as @PinkyPan1 observed, really tiny habits often take root pretty quickly.

Keep in mind that building habits isn’t an all or nothing thing. Even though repetition is a key component of building a habit, researchers have found that skipping one day doesn’t derail your habit...even a new habit. But skipping two days in a row is problematic and missing three days in a row pretty much puts you back at square one. Unless as you noted @77tes, that this was something you did before.

The longer you’ve done the habit the more ingrained that behavior is in your life and in your daily routine and the easier it is to resume doing it after a break. That said, long streaks of practice are the key to making habits automatic, which is great because we don’t have to think about doing them anymore.

After 2.5 years of regularly playing the guitar it’s now a daily habit for me. I can miss a day or two here and there and it’s no big deal. I will keep going back to playing because I really enjoy it. However, missing a lot of days could theoretically delay my Grammy award, so there’s that to consider. :-)

nebslp wrote: »

Day 3 and I’m still not “perfect”. LOL! I grabbed my vitamin on the way to the coffee pot so that was good. I told myself I didn’t have 30 seconds to run upstairs because my husband was waiting for me...very patiently...and I had slept later than planned because I was still awake at 3:30 AM and was tired. So the truth of the matter is I could have done gone up, but I rationalized my way out of it. I regret not having that happy feeling that comes when I do my calendar review in the mornings so I will try to remember that next time I am too ????lazy??? Or is it resistance to change, something I struggle with?

@nebslp, Habits, even tiny habits, don't have a perfectly smooth glide path to success. They still have to live in our real world where there are breaks in our normal routine. I think that the pull of your upstairs room is strong enough that you will make this routine into a habit. Rewards are powerful incentives. It's the habits we try to push our way through when we're not sold on the rewards/benefits that are the hardest to make stick.

I think we all struggle with resistance to change, just to varying degrees. I think we can become more comfortable with change over time when change events make our lives better and happier. 15 years ago I was much more change adverse, but the changes that I've made since then were so positive that now my attitude towards change is: "Bring it on!"

airborneclarkey wrote: »

This thread is fantastic

Welcome to our group, @airborneclarkey! We are glad you have joined us!