You don't need discipline or effort

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I used to be a big failure when it comes to sticking with habits.

Years ago, I came across this book that taught me the skill of sticking to habits with almost no effort or procrastination. “The Kaizen Way: One Small Step Can Change Your Life”

Over the years of training thousands of entrepreneurs in my career as a speaker, I’ve shared my own personal experience with them.

I’ve seen them apply it to build sticky habits in their own work and personal lives…

• From completing large projects they were so overwhelmed to start…

• All the way to making time for their sons and daughters…

• To building a daily jogging habit.

Done correctly, you make the habit become effortless and 2nd nature. You stick to it and see daily and weekly progress.

And habit building then becomes a skill you can transfer to other areas of life.

As 2023 winds down, and you’re thinking of the stuff you want to achieve next year, I hope this helps you.

1. Focus on small steps that are impossible to fail and sound a little “stupid”

Most of us set habits in a state of excitement and when we’re feeling motivated.

So these habits tend to be big and demanding. Until we start doing them for a few days and realizing it’s not as easy as we thought.

Which then leads us to give up, and the cycle repeats itself.

Instead, a better way is to focus on steps so small that it’s impossible to fail. Almost laughable and sounds stupid.

Why this works so well?

• Because it's so silly and impossible to fail, you end up sticking to the habit.

• Once the chain of habit is formed, it becomes hard to break.

• You can then scale up the intensity or scope of the habit afterwards.

From the book:

“Commit yourself to continuously take small steps towards improvement.

If you make and maintain this one commitment, you’ll naturally overcome the fears and other psychological responses often associated with changes, such as procrastination and feelings of resistance. Instead of attempting to achieve increasingly larger steps, your challenge should be quite the opposite. In every step of the way, try answering the question:

“How can I take a step so small that it is impossible to fail?”

By focusing on making the steps as tiny as possible, you guarantee small successes you can build on and gain momentum.”

2. Don't aim to become a different person. Your subconscious mind will reject it

Unlike what most people think… to build new habits, you should NOT have to become a totally different person.

Examples of trying to be a “different person”: waking up 2 hours earlier… having a whole new diet… exercising for 2 hours everyday when you don’t even do any physical activity right now.

DON’T do that.

That is too demanding, and forces too much change which can be scary and overwhelming.

Your emotions and psychology may even reject that.

Hence, be the same person. Just do a small tiny thing differently. You will realize that you don't need to rely on motivation or willpower to stick to it. Thus it makes it more sustainable.

From the book:

“To avoid failure at keeping your resolutions despite your best intentions, don’t push yourself to somehow become different rapidly. Instead, pledge to achieve positive, enduring life changes one powerful baby step at a time.

“All changes, even positive ones, are scary. Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm the brain’s fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play.”

3. When facing resistance, it doesn't mean you are weak or lack willpower. It simply means the task is too huge. Scale it down!

Common issue I used to face is when I face obstacles in my habits, I start to feel demoralized.

I think of others sticking to their habits and start to doubt my own character and ability.

“Why am I so lazy? Why am I less motivated?”

And then I start to give up on the habit because I feel I lack the ability.

When actually, the problem lies with the size of the habit I set. Not with you!

By scaling down habits when you feel resistance, you reframe the problem.

It’s not about you or my ability. It’s simply the size of the task is too unrealistic.

This will help you be calm about sticking to habits with ease. You no longer attach emotions to it.

And without the emotions clouding your mind, you stick to it easily and eventually make it sticky.

From the book:

If you hit a wall of resistance, “don’t give up! Instead, try scaling back the size of your steps. Remember that your goal is to bypass fear—and to make the steps so small that you can barely notice an effort.”

Your brain is programmed to resist change. But, by taking small steps, you effectively rewire your nervous system so that it does the following:

• "unsticks" you from a creative block

• bypasses the fight-or-flight response

• creates new connections between neurons so that the brain enthusiastically takes over the process of change and you progress rapidly toward your goal

4. Low key change prevents your brain from feeling overwhelmed

The problem with big habits and goals? It overwhelms you. Makes you feel fearful and doubt yourself and your ability to stick with it.

So before you even have time to cement the habit, you are already mentally at a disadvantage.

And so when you fail to stick with it, your brain just brings up that thought and reaffirms it.

Wouldn’t it be easier if you simply make the habit low key, so it doesn’t trigger feelings of overwhelm?

Without those emotions weighing you down, you execute the habit effortlessly. You dont need to rely on willpower, which is unreliable to begin with.

Once you realize this, you become a master at building habits. You start out just wanting to build a habit on running or meditating or reading. But as you build the habit, you gain something more valuable.

What’s that?

It’s the skill and psychology of understanding how habits work.

And once you learn this, you can apply this is so many other areas of your life. That’s when the true potential is unlocked!

From the book:

“Low-key change helps the human mind circumnavigate the fear that blocks success and creativity.”

“Small actions are at the heart of Kaizen.

By taking steps so tiny that they seem trivial or even laughable, you’ll sail calmly past obstacles that have defeated you before

. Slowly—but painlessly!—you’ll cultivate an appetite for continued success and lay down a permanent new route to change.”

Max

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