Habits, streaks and intention

It goes like this: we have a hard time breaking bad habits. We have a hard time making good habits. While bad habits are on autopilot, good ones require something very specific: Intention. Because doing the right thing is hard. Because starting is hard. Because practice is hard.

But here's a cheat for the game of new habits with 3 parts: book a daily time for it, when the time comes, show up to start doing it and don't break the streak of doing it everyday. Will it be hard? Yes. Will there be days when you don't feel like it? Yes. Will there be excuses for why you can’t? Yes. On the other hand, I didn’t feel like writing today to be honest. But if we can show up for work every day, we can do it for our growth as well. We play our game, intentionally.

Oh yes, and it helps to have an artifact to keep us honest on whether we’re keeping the streak or not. Here’s a hack: Buy an old school calendar. Hang it in a place where you can’t avoid to see it every day. And just when you start, cross out the day with an X. See how that feels after a day. After a week. After a month. After a year.

Previous
Previous

Permission to be lazy

Next
Next

What’s one thing you can do… that a lot of people hate… but still need?