How little things bring big changes

Have you read “The power of habit ” written by Charles Duhigg?

Is a very good book to know what habits are and how we can use them for good things.

A habit work like this :

• Signal: thing that starts the routine.
• Habit: the routine itself.
• Gratification: reward at the end of the process.
• Signal: ring phone.
• Habit: check the phone.
• Gratification: FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is passed.

I think that 80% of our life is ruined by habits and routines.

These can be good or bad, but we all have at least one.

Maybe it can be to get up off the bed, take the phone, or have anxiety and smoke cigarettes.

A habit can be a little, little thing.

Try to run 2km a day randomly and, after that, try to run 2km a day every time at 6 P.M. then eat candy.

I don’t know if that candy can help you with losing weight but it can help with the habit of going to run every day.

Have you heard about repetition?

“ Repetition is a figure of speech that produces a succession of members that are the same or only slightly varied in form, syntactic function, or meaning. “

So, this thing will bring you further in life because repetition is accosted with perseverance most of the time.

We all know what perseverance means, no?

Even habit can be a sort of perseverance thing.

“Perseverance is a continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition: the action or condition or an instance of persevering: steadfastness.”

Imagine, waking up, and read one page of a book.

Then you take a gift, candy?

Day after, same things, you wake up, and the first thing you do?

Read a page of that book.

Now? You live your day like it never does.

Tomorrow? Same thing, different day.

Repeat this for 21 to 30 days, every day.

This “stuff” contains with it all the 3 elements we mentioned before :

• Repetition: You read one page of that book every day until it’s finished.
• Perseverance: You read one page of that book even if you hate reading.
• Habit: After 21 to 30 days, this thing will become a habit.

It’s not “wake up at 5 A.M., eat bread and water, and go run 15 KM in less than 45 minutes”.

It’s “wake up, read one page and eat candy”.

Let’s see the difference.

The first goal is not achievable in one day.

The second? Yes.

The first is not being able to create a habit, because we are not processing all the steps to create one.

The second? Yes.

Let’s think bigger now.

Imagine, wake up, do what you want and around 6 P.M. go out and pick up one trash on your road or in front of your house.

After that, go home and take tea or coca-cola, something you like.

Try this for 30 days, then upgrade.

Pick up 3 trash plastics in front of your home, but the reward doesn’t change, it remains the same.

Think if one thousand people do this in your city.

It will be cleaner, no?

Little thing.

Little, little, thing.

That is the way we change something.

Do you know compound interest?

“It is the result of reinvesting interest, rather than paying it out, so that interest in the next period is then earned on the principal sum plus previously accumulated interest.”

This is an economic view, but there is even a life view.

If you write 1k words per day every day for one year.

In the end, you’ll write 365k words.

Imagine publishing some of that content you have written on a blog.

After that, even if you don’t write yet, people will still read your words, because they are in that blog, and, maybe, money can go inside your pocket even if you don’t remember what you have written.

This is the interest compound.

With this, we can change every aspect of our life.

Do you want to become a bodybuilder?

Ok.

Define a habit following the rules up there, repeat that every day or whenever you want (a habit has a time defined) and be perseverant.

The interest compound will do all the extra work, don’t worry.

A sample can be like this:

• Signal: 6 P.M.
• Habit: go to the park and do 1 pull-up and 5 push-ups.
• Gratification: you watch a Netflix film in the evening.

So :

• Repetition: You do work out 3 times every week.
• Perseverance: You do this every week.
• Habit: After 21 to 30 days, it will become a habit.

Do you want to become a “green ” person?

Another simple sample could be like this :

• Signal: dirty where you are walking.
• Habit: catch those things and throw them into a bin near you.
• Gratification: in the evening eat everything you want.

So:

• Repetition: You do this every time you go for a walk.
• Perseverance: You do this every time. (almost)
• Habit: After 21 to 30 days, it will become a habit.

All of this stuff I just write here is not that simple.

I summarized all my personal experiences of these years, so I recommend you to read one of the books I linked under.

They could be irrelevant or they could change your life, if you are in doubt try them ;-).

• Atomic Habits by James Clear.
• The power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
• Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg.

Benedict.