Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mini Habits - Smaller Habits, Bigger Results (PDFDrive) - 100-366
Mini Habits - Smaller Habits, Bigger Results (PDFDrive) - 100-366
An Optional Modification:
Increase Mini Requirement
Incrementally (Careful!)
There is a modified version of the Mini
Habits system where you scale up your
requirement gradually. I prefer not to do
this, because with a greater requirement,
you lose freedom, flexibility, and
autonomy. I have never found the need to
do this with my mini habits, because the
requirement only affects me when I meet
the bare minimum (and on those days,
I'm happy the minimum is easy).
The best reason for you to increase your
requirement would be if you find
yourself only meeting the minimum day
after day. I would still give it at least a
month before you try this. If you go a
long time without doing extra beyond
your easy commitment, then mini habits
might not be as effective for you as for
others. Don't forget the safety net though
—it will still develop into a habit, and a
small habit is relatively easy to scale up.
If you work better with a rigid structure,
it's something to consider. But until a
behavior is habit, it's risky to increase
your requirements. If you do, I
recommend doing it very gradually.
Once you have a habit, you can
experiment with higher requirements
(such as my normal-sized gym
requirement after 6 months of doing one
push-up daily). Since you're building off
of a strong base at that point, and have
built up your willpower, bigger
requirements are much more attainable.
But again, I would be in no rush to do
this if you're getting good results with
your mini requirements.
It may be that you need 60 days of
meeting the bare minimum before you
can leverage the habit. This is how it
was with reading for me (as noted, day
57 is when I saw a big improvement).
I first started with one push-up per day,
and for about six months I only did about
1-20 push-ups daily. I also exercised at
the gym occasionally, but to start, this
was all I had to do. In late June, I
changed my goal to driving to the gym
three times per week. I'm not sure I
could have done this to start with
(maybe), but I know that doing the one
push-up challenge helped me build up
my self-discipline and willingness to
exercise to make this leap easy.
Apply This Strategy
Elsewhere
Mini Habits is more than just a system
to teach you how to develop healthy new
habits—it’s a guide for self-control.
Now you know how your brain works,
why motivation fails, and how to manage
your willpower to make it last. Use
these techniques for any situation in
which you want to take action. The
better you get at mini habits, the more
success you'll have in all areas of your
life.
That’s all there is to say for now. I hope
the end of this book is the new beginning
of a very exciting Mini Habits journey
for you. And I wish you very small
successes, over and over and over again.
Sincerely,
Stephen Guise
Want More?
For more mini habit ideas, visit
minihabits.com.
Readers of this book get a $35 discount
on the all-new Mini Habit Mastery
Video Course. Don’t forget to claim it!
Click on this link to have the discount
already applied and I’ll see you inside
the course.
For researched and entertaining
information on mini habits, small steps,
focusing, minimalism, and personal
development, visit my main blog,
deepexistence.com.
Also consider signing up for Deep
Existence's Tuesday messages. These
are email-exclusive messages I send out
every Tuesday with helpful, life-
improving information. And yes, I do
like to talk about mini habits a lot. If you
sign up, you'll get a set of 40 Deep
Existence exclusive focus-themed
desktop wallpapers (created by me). In
addition, you'll get my first book, Stress
Management Redefined: 8 Steps To
Remove Stress Before It Kills You. It’s a
short, very fun read at 8,000 words.
Lastly, signing up gets you access to my
focus toolbox, which has the finest
resources around to help you focus. It’s
all free!
Final note: if you believe this book
shares an important message, please
leave a review on Amazon. Reviews (in
quantity and in rating) are the main
metric people use to judge a book's
content. And if you have great results
with this strategy down the road, please
come back and tell other readers (and
me) about your success! Every single
review has a huge impact on others’
willingness to read a book, and if this
changes your life, you can change
someone else's life by spreading the
word. The impact of the mini habits idea
is up to you.
Email: sguise@deepexistence.com
Tuesday Life Improvement Messages:
http://deepexistence.com/subscribe/
1 Nordgren, L. F., F. van Harreveld, & J.
van der Pligt. The Restraint Bias: How
the Illusion of Self-Restraint Promotes
Impulsive Behavior. Psychological
Science (December 2009). v 20, no. 12,
1523-1528
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/12/152