Many habits don’t offer immediate rewards. Sculpting your abs, for example, takes time. Give yourself mini rewards to accompany your mini habits. 
For example, allow yourself a 10-minute power nap or watch a fun video as a reward for meeting your mini goal.

Create Your Reward Plan

Mini habits are low-willpower Trojan horses that can leverage their easy access into the brains control room into big results.

Habits are either “time-based” or “activity-based.” Identify which cue works for each new mini habit. 
Do you want to exercise at a specific time, such as nine every morning, or give yourself more flexibility, such as before dinner? If specific cues tax your willpower, assign yourself general cues, such as completing the mini habit before bedtime.

Define Your Habit Cues

An inverse relationship connects motivation and willpower. 
<ul>
<li>When your motivation is high and you’re enthusiastic about something, you only need a little willpower to get going. </li>
<li>When the initial buzz wears off or you must face a task you don’t want to do, your need for willpower rises. </li>
</ul>
When an aspirational activity requires lots of willpower, you’re less likely to stick with it.

The Problem with Motivation

<ul>
<li>Write a list of positive habits you’d like to have. </li>
<li>Break each habit down into a stupid small step, the minimum possible action, such as sorting one email or saying thank you to one person a day. </li>
<li>Try a mini habit for a week and evaluate the results. </li>
<li>Then choose to either focus on that mini habit (the “Single Mini Plan”) or to accomplish multiple mini habits a day (the “Multiple Mini Plan”). </li>
</ul>
If you have one primary goal, such as getting in shape, the Single Mini Plan will be the more effective approach.

Choose Your Mini Habits And Habit Plan

Writing something down grants it importance. Visually track your mini habit success to reinforce your sense of accomplishment. 
Crossing your performance off on a calendar each day gives you a graphic representation of your progress. Several digital apps can help you reinforce your mini habit by tracking your development.

Write Everything Down

To make changes last, you need to stop fighting against your brain.
Instead, decide that you’re better off taking a step, even a small step, than staying in the same place. Taking one small step daily leads you in the right direction and sets you on your way to developing a lifelong habit. The small step requires little willpower, but its results are enormous.

Stop Fighting With Yourself

Contrary to common belief, the average time it takes to form a habit is not 21 to 30 days. Studies show it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit. The average person needs 66 days. 
You’ll know when a behavior becomes a habit when you experience a decrease in resistance. Instead of forcing yourself to meet your one push-up goal, for example, you’ll head to the gym without giving it much thought.

Forming A Habit

You already have all the inspiration you need inside you, but it may be dormant. Awaken it with mini habits.

The advantage of mini habits is that repetition strengthens your willpower. Each task requires just a little willpower to complete and the frequency of repetition forms a habit over time. 
Once a habit is in place, you can build on it more easily. That’s why stupid small is powerful.

Think Small

<ul>
<li>Mini habits work because they deplete little of your willpower reserve.</li>
<li>On the mini-habit plan, you divide your goals into “stupid small” but effective actions.</li>
<li>The mini-habit rules are: don’t cheat, be glad when you succeed, give yourself rewards, stay with your new routine, and drop back and go smaller if it gets hard.</li>
</ul>
Also, enjoy the ease of your new small steps, recognize why they work, and don’t set bigger goals – just repeat your new mini habit a few extra times.

Mini Habits: Rules And Workings

Following the rules of the mini-habits program will keep you on track and ensure success:
<ol>
<li>Never, ever cheat</li>
<li>Be happy with all progress</li>
<li>Reward yourself often, especially after a mini habit</li>
<li>Stay level-headed</li>
<li>If you feel strong resistance, back off and go smaller</li>
<li>Remind yourself how easy this is</li>
<li>Never think a step is too small</li>
<li>Put extra energy and ambition toward bonus reps, not a bigger requirement.</li>
</ol>

Eight Mini-Habit Rules

While having a positive belief in your capabilities is good, setting your expectations too high can hold you back. 
When you’ve exceeded your stupid small goal several days in a row, your expectations will naturally rise. You won’t be content with one push-up when you’ve done 25 every day. Resist the urge to increase the mini goal to match your elevated expectations. Feel good about your accomplishment and focus on consistency.

Meet Your Schedule And Drop High Expectations

Smart willpower management is key to personal development as smart money management is key to financial success.

Ask yourself why you want to instill a mini habit into your life, and delve deeply into the answer by asking the question more than once. 
Make sure that your mini habits align with your values.

Use The Why Drill On Each Mini Habit

<ul>
<li>Take one small step every day to initiate a lifelong positive habit.</li>
<li>People form habits over time through repeated behaviors.</li>
<li>A mini habit is the smallest possible iteration of a positive habit, like one push-up.</li>
<li>A mini habit is “too small to fail” because it requires only a tiny bit of willpower, and you quickly accumulate a record of success.</li>
<li>When your motivation for an activity is high, you don’t need much willpower. When your motivation is low, you need a lot of willpower, which most people don’t have.</li>
</ul>

Mini Habits: Too Small To Fail

Studies show that human beings have only a limited supply of willpower.
The five primary causes of weakening willpower or self-control – called “ego depletion” – are:
<ul>
<li>effort</li>
<li>perceived difficulty</li>
<li>negative affect</li>
<li>subjective fatigue</li>
<li>blood glucose levels.</li>
</ul>

Managing Willpower

Several signs will tell you that you’ve developed a positive habit:
<ul>
<li>You’ll feel less resistance and perform the activity without much thought. </li>
<li>The activity will become less emotional and more routine. </li>
<li>You incorporate it into your identity, such as “I’m a writer” or “I’m a cyclist.”</li>
</ul>

Watch For Signs of Habit

books

Books

problemsolving

Problem Solving

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

7 Books on Habits

Personal development blogger Stephen Guise offers a self-improvement program that is “too small to fail.”

Discover the Life-Changing Strategy of This Worldwide Bestseller in 17 Languages! UPDATED: Includes the best habit tracking apps of 2017. Lasting Change For Early Quitters, Burnouts, The Unmotivated, And Everyone Else Too When I decided to start exercising consistently 10 years ago, this is what actually happened: I tried "getting motivated." It worked sometimes.I tried setting audacious big goals. I almost always failed them.I tried to make changes last. They didn't. Like most people who try to change and fail, I assumed that I was the problem. Then one afternoon--after another failed attempt to get motivated to exercise--I (accidentally) started my first mini habit. I initially committed to do one push-up, and it turned into a full workout. I was shocked. This "stupid idea" wasn't supposed to work. I was shocked again when my success with this strategy continued for months (and to this day). I had to consider that maybe I wasn't the problem in those 10 years of mediocre results. Maybe it was my prior strategies that were ineffective, despite being oft-repeated as "the way to change" in countless books and blogs. My suspicions were correct. Is There A Scientific Explanation For This? As I sought understanding, I found a plethora of scientific studies that had answers, with nobody to interpret them correctly. Based on the science--which you'll find peppered throughout Mini Habits--we've been doing it all wrong. You can succeed without the guilt, intimidation, and repeated failure associated with such strategies as "getting motivated," New Year's Resolutions, or even "just doing it." In fact, you need to stop using those strategies if they aren't giving you great results. Most popular strategies don't work well because they require you to fight against your subconscious brain (a fight not easily won). It's only when you start playing by your brain's rules and taking your human limitations seriously--as mini habits show you how to do--that you can achieve lasting change. What's A Mini Habit? A mini habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day; its "too small to fail" nature makes it weightless, deceptively powerful, and a superior habit-building strategy. You will have no choice but to believe in yourself when you're always moving forward. The barrier to the first step is so low that even depressed or "stuck" people can find early success and begin to reverse their lives right away. And if you think one push-up a day is too small to matter, I've got one heck of a story for you! Aim For The First Step They say when you aim for the moon, you'll land among the stars. Well, that doesn't make sense, as the moon is closer than the stars. I digress. The message is that you should aim very high and even if you fall short, you'll still get somewhere. I've found the opposite to be true in regards to productivity and healthy behaviors. When you aim for the moon, you won't do anything because it's too far away. But when you aim for the step in front of you, you might keep going and reach the moon. I've used the Mini Habits strategy to get into the best shape of my life, read 10x more books, and write 4x as many words. It started from requiring one push-up from myself every day. How ridiculous is that? Not so ridiculous when you consider the science of the brain, habits, and willpower. The Mini Habits system works because it's how our brains are designed to change. Note: This book isn't for eliminating bad habits (some principles could be useful for breaking habits). Mini Habits is a strategy to create permanent healthy habits in: exercise, writing, reading, thinking positively, meditating, drinking water, eating healthy foods, etc. Lasting change won't happen until you take that first step into a strategy that works. Give Mini Habits a try. You won't look back.

habits

Habits

Discover the Life-Changing Strategy of This Worldwide Bestseller in 17 Languages! Lasting Change For Early Quitters, Burnouts, The Unmotivated, And Everyone Else Too  When I decided to start exercising consistently 10 years ago, this is what actually happened: I tried &quot;getting motivated.&quot; It worked sometimes.I tried setting audacious big goals. I almost always failed them.I tried to make changes last. They didn't.Like most people who try to change and fail, I assumed that I was the problem. Then one afternoon--after another failed attempt to get motivated to exercise--I (accidentally) started my first mini habit. I initially committed to do one push-up, and it turned into a full workout. I was shocked. This &quot;stupid idea&quot; wasn't supposed to work. I was shocked again when my success with this strategy continued for months (and to this day). I had to consider that maybe I wasn't the problem in those 10 years of mediocre results. Maybe it was my prior strategies that were ineffective, despite being oft-repeated as &quot;the way to change&quot; in countless books and blogs. My suspicions were correct. Is There A Scientific Explanation For This?As I sought understanding, I found a plethora of scientific studies that had answers, with nobody to interpret them correctly. Based on the science--which you'll find peppered throughout Mini Habits--we've been doing it all wrong. You can succeed without the guilt, intimidation, and repeated failure associated with such strategies as &quot;getting motivated,&quot; New Year's Resolutions, or even &quot;just doing it.&quot; In fact, you need to stop using those strategies if they aren't giving you great results. Most popular strategies don't work well because they require you to fight against your subconscious brain (a fight not easily won). It's only when you start playing by your brain's rules and taking your human limitations seriously--as mini habits show you how to do--that you can achieve lasting change. What's A Mini Habit?A mini habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day; its &quot;too small to fail&quot; nature makes it weightless, deceptively powerful, and a superior habit-building strategy. You will have no choice but to believe in yourself when you're always moving forward. The barrier to the first step is so low that even depressed or &quot;stuck&quot; people can find early success and begin to reverse their lives right away. And if you think one push-up a day is too small to matter, I've got one heck of a story for you! Aim For The First StepThey say when you aim for the moon, you'll land among the stars. Well, that doesn't make sense, as the moon is closer than the stars. I digress.  The message is that you should aim very high and even if you fall short, you'll still get somewhere. I've found the opposite to be true in regards to productivity and healthy behaviors. When you aim for the moon, you won't do anything because it's too far away. But when you aim for the step in front of you, you might keep going and reach the moon. I've used the Mini Habits strategy to get into the best shape of my life, read 10x more books, and write 4x as many words. It started from requiring one push-up from myself every day. How ridiculous is that? Not so ridiculous when you consider the science of the brain, habits, and willpower. The Mini Habits system works because it's how our brains are designed to change. Note: This book isn't for eliminating bad habits (some principles could be useful for breaking habits). Mini Habits is a strategy to create permanent healthy habits in: exercise, writing, reading, thinking positively, meditating, drinking water, eating healthy foods, etc. Lasting change won't happen until you take that first step into a strategy that works. Give Mini Habits a try. You won't look back.

Stephen Guise is an international bestselling author, blogger, and entrepreneur. His books have been translated into 21 languages.As an author, Guise is known for delivering highly actionable, world-class behavior change strategies in a humorous wrapper.

Watch For Signs of Habit

Similar ideas to Watch For Signs of Habit

The Power of Good Habits for Achieving Great Things