The Power of Less Part 3 of 5: Start Small
January 13, 2010 by dr. lam
This is a big one, so to speak. I remember in my spin class in January a year ago that I was complaining that I could not get a seat at my 9:15 am class because of all the New Year’s resolution people. Sure enough, after the super bowl the attrition rate was steep, and I soon had my spin bike back again. What Babauta focuses on is breaking old habits, which he says takes about 30 days to reinforce new habits. Unfortunately, we all begin with massive restructuring. We take on mammoth goals and want to do large things to make it count. However, we ultimately fail.
An example is dieting. When we go on a crash diet, we wind up losing a ton of weight quickly only to gain it back with even more weight shortly thereafter. However, if we make subtle, small changes and build from there losing weight a pound a week, we can hope for greater longevity with that change. For example, you first give up soft drinks, then maybe diet soft drinks, then maybe fast food, etc. Compare that with, I will only eat carrots from now on. Now how long will that last? Probably not long. We all need to take it one step at a time. Choose a small resolution and enforce that habit slowly until it sticks.
The other problem is that we take on multiple small resolutions and multiple habits that we are trying to break all at the same time. Babauta recommends in the spirit of single-tasking that we talked about in our last blog that we should focus on one habit at a time and build from there. If we try to take on multiple habits no matter how small the task, we simply fail all at once. Single task and start with a small habit to break, then break it.
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That’s hilarious about those spin bikes on new year’s…lol
Very good point about starting small and building on.
New Year’s Resolution people. Look out, it’s the New Year’s Resolution people!
Excellent blog.
thanks guys!