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1-Page Summary of Mini Habits

Mini Habits

No matter how committed you are to a goal, it’s hard to accomplish. People tend to overestimate their self-discipline and fail at achieving goals. However, that doesn’t mean they’re not trying hard enough or that they don’t care. The problem is with the strategies commonly used for self-improvement. They’re ineffective because people keep using them even though they’ve failed in the past.

Instead of taking a step, decide to take one small step. Doing this daily will lead you in the right direction and develop a lifelong habit. Taking just one small step requires little willpower but has enormous results.

The mini-habit model is a type of behavioral modification that focuses on adopting positive behaviors, one small increment at a time. It works best for people who want to change but have trouble committing to some big new goal or project. The other popular models don’t tend to work well for most people in terms of drastically altering entrenched habits, such as alcohol abuse. However the habit forming model can be used by anyone interested in reducing passive bad habits which would otherwise drain energy and lead them down an unproductive path–things like laziness or procrastination are examples of this kind of behavior.

A Personal Experience

Stephen Guise had never been able to force himself to exercise regularly. On December 28, 2012, he was faced with another new year and didn’t want to make the same resolution again that he knew wouldn’t work. So instead of resolving to start exercising more often, he decided on a different strategy: He would only commit to 30 minutes at a time and not worry about doing it every day. But when it came down to actually starting his workout routine, nothing worked—no upbeat music or visualization could get him moving. The thought of having to exercise for an hour every day seemed too overwhelming for him and made it seem like an impossible task.

Once he realized the problem, Guise found a solution. He decided to do just one push-up per day. This was so easy that it barely took any effort at all. Then, he decided to do another one and then a few more. Next, he told himself to do just one pull-up. He did that and then did a few more as well until 20 minutes of exercise were completed in total for the day. This marked the beginning of “The One Push-up Challenge.”

Guise resolved to do a push-up every day. That quickly became a habit, and he added going to the gym as well. Within months, exercise had become part of his routine. He wondered why this approach worked after so many other attempts failed for him.

Why Mini Habits Work

A mini habit is a positive routine developed in its smallest form. For example, if your goal is 100 push-ups every day, the mini habit would be one push-up each day. The reason it’s called “stupid small” is because you’re not going to fail at that amount of exercise and will feel successful after completing it. After doing this for some time, you’ll start to get used to this success and continue with more exercise as part of your routine (the positive feedback loop).

A Duke University study discovered that 45% of human behavior is habitual. Habits are formed when an action is repeated multiple times, and the brain develops neural pathways to carry out actions in a specific way. Over time, the more you repeat something, the stronger your habit becomes. For example, if you always take a shower after waking up every day for a week straight, then on Saturday morning you will feel compelled to do so because your body has already established that pattern.