How to create new habits with small routines
Last night I decided I was going to wake up with enough time to spend one hour studying before I had to go to work.
That was the plan. Last night.
Then, the morning arrived, and the alarm rang.
And, when the alarm went off this morning, I just stayed lying on bed after I turned it off …
My brain went into full gear trying to justify sleeping longer: “I’m tired, I haven’t been sleeping well the last few days, sleep is my priority and I should listen to my body” … I was going through all the mental EXCUSES and saying to myself, “well, I’ve already lost time, I don’t have one hour to study, so might as well just stay in bed and sleep!”
All these thoughts were all lurking and popping up and trying to convince me to sleep longer, trying to get me to avoid the pain of waking up early.
But, at the same time I was having all these thoughts in my brain, there was one thought that was way more POWERFUL than the others.
This thought was saying to me “something is better than nothing…” and when this thought came to me, I stood up.
I stood up because I realized that even if I’ve already missed some time by staying longer in bed (15 minutes…) it was still better for me to study for 45 minutes than totally wasting the opportunity and not doing it at all.
Even if I failed at my initial intent of dedicating one hour to study, doing it for 45 minutes is still much better than just giving up and doing nothing.
But, there are so many occasions where we convince ourselves that we missed the opportunity.
You convince yourself that you cannot go to the gym because you don’t have one hour a day.
You convince yourself that you cannot save because you don’t have enough money to do it.
You convince yourself that you cannot lose weight because you cannot stick to diets.
You convince yourself that you cannot study because you don’t have enough time during the day…
We use all type of reasons to get to these conclusions, but the reality is, that any little thing that we can do counts and adds up towards reaching our goals.
Even the TINIEST STEP moves you FORWARD. The trick is to just keep on taking those steps, however small they are.
You don’t need to have one hour a day to exercise, do you have 5 minutes a day? Use those 5 minutes to move your body. Getting your heart rate going for a few minutes is better than doing nothing! Have you heard of Tabata workouts? That will give you results in short amounts of time!
You don’t have enough money to save? Can you save $10 a day? That will turn into $3,650 a year! Then watch the power of compounding in action! Saving that for 20 years at 10% interest will turn $10/day into $206,190!
You cannot commit to a full-blown diet? Why don’t just take one thing at a time? Try not drinking soda for a month. Drink more water. See how that changes you.
Or, are you like me and have great plans to dedicate one hour to study everyday? But, where do you have one full hour? Do you have a 15-minute break instead? Use that time to study. Can you listen to audio recordings while you drive or commute? Do that.
Any little step equals PROGRESS.
You have big plans, grandiose changes; you want to take bold steps. Go all in or nothing at all…
Sometimes you want to go from not running at all to running 3 miles the next day. And then… you are sore and you stop running all together.
The reality is that life gets on the way. YOU get on your own way. There are many other things you need to do daily and adding one more thing is tough.
But you need to realize that changes come from small steps, not huge leaps.
Every single thing that you do counts.
Your NEW HABITS are formed by starting with SMALL ROUTINES. And when those routines become normal, you’ll be at a new level. And then, you can level up again and again.
Remember that you learn to walk before you run. And you learn to crawl before you walk. So take things at small bites.
Use the small chunks of time that you have during the day and INVEST them IN YOU.
Don't discount the tiny efforts.
Because at the end of the day, progress only comes from MOVING FORWARD.
And you move by taking ACTION, even the tiniest action.
Start with small and CONSISTENT STEPS and watch how the CHANGES accumulate!
See the effects compound on each other and at the end of one year you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve reached!
Let me know below, what are the things you’ve convinced yourself that you cannot do because you don’t have time? Have you ever tried to see how do you spend your time daily, where does your time go? What helpful tips can you share that helped you make your day more productive?
xoxo,
Sofia