I recently began using a free subscription to Blinkist. This site contains "blinks" or short overviews of many popular books.
I love listening to books in this format for three main reasons.
1) It saves you money, because you're not purchasing new books.
2) You can listen on the go.
3) The overviews are much quicker to listen to than an entire book.
This is especially helpful if you have a long list of books you want to read but don't have as much free time as you'd like. It only takes a few minutes to listen to the main points of each book. One of my favorite YouTubers, The Minimal Mom, recommended Blinkist and the book, Atomic Habits. I am so glad she did! I learned so much from just the overview. Today I will share my main takeaways from the book and why I think we all need to develop atomic habits.
Main Takeaways
1. Begin making small changes. Consistently repeat them. These actions will become habits that can lead to big results.
Many people spend their entire lives searching for a new way to lose weight or get rich without actually putting in the work it takes. They have such huge goals that is seems daunting to start at the beginning and work their way up.
Let's try to look at it from a different perspective. Think: What can I do today to bring myself one step closer to that end result? If you desire to lose weight, start by taking a long walk, drinking 8 cups of water, or eating extra veggies with your dinner. If you desire to become rich, search for a better job, create a savings plan, or develop a new form of passive income. Think about your interests and strengths. Drawing on those, determine some ways you can earn money doing something you enjoy.
Continue these new habits day after day, building on them as you go. These simple, consistent actions will help you achieve the big results you want. You don't have to completely overhaul your life in one day. Take it one step at a time, and see just how much you can accomplish.
2. When you consciously repeat an action over and over, it eventually becomes a habit.
It has often been said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. While this may be true for some people, not everyone fits into the same mold. In actuality, it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic. Maybe that sounds overwhelming. But it's not really that bad if you consider how long you've been wanting to implement a new habit. You might have failed every time before now, but don't let failure win again!
How many of you put "brush teeth" or "eat lunch" on your to-do list for the day? I'm guessing almost no one feels a need to remind themselves of these activities. These are examples of habits that are automatic. We started them at only a few months old and have been doing them consistently for decades. We were prompted by our parents to complete these activities until it became natural to us. Likewise, we have to find a way to prompt ourselves to repeat an action over and over until it becomes just as automatic as eating or cleaning our teeth.
So, how can you prompt yourself to begin doing something that isn't usually on your schedule? My first instinct is to write it down. Muscle memory assists greatly in your ability to remember things. If you write it down, you are much more likely to remember it. Put the written note somewhere you will see it. Complete the activity. Do it again the next day and the next and the next...
3. Your goals should be specific.
Have you ever made a list of New Year's Resolutions? If so, I'm guessing it went something like this: Exercise more, Eat better, Be more successful, Spend more time with God, etc. But these goals are vague. Most of us want to eat healthy, workout, be a good person, and achieve success. But just how do we get to the end goal? We need to create small, specific goals that we can check off as we complete them.
Instead of listing your goal as "Exercise more," try saying, "Do Yoga for 15 minutes, 3 times a week" or "Walk at a moderate pace for 20 minutes, 5 times a week." These goals are specific. You know exactly what you need to do to meet your goal: Set your watch for 15 minutes, put on a yoga video from YouTube, and start stretching.
4. Link your desired habits with something you enjoy to make them immediately satisfying. This is essential to effective behavior change.
Do you hate washing dishes, but could lay on the couch for hours listening to a podcast? Link these actions together. Only allow yourself to listen to your favorite podcast while washing dishes. Need to workout, but would rather watch YouTube? Watch your favorite YouTuber while taking a walk. Linking something you enjoy with a desired habit will make you more excited and more willing to follow through with your plans.
5. Make the habit easy to adopt. You can use the 2-minute rule. Getting started is the most important step in doing something.
In following the 2-minute rule, your goal is to complete the first 2-minutes of a new habit you want to begin. If your habit is to run more, put on your running shoes and stretch for 2-minutes. If your goal is to read your Bible everyday, download a Bible app and read for 2-minutes. If you only complete 2-minutes of the activity, you're better off than you were before. But chances are you'll want to keep going for a minute or two more and possibly even longer. Getting started is often the most difficult step, but it is also the most crucial. Just start. Don't worry about the long-term goal now. Just begin.
6. Track your habits. If needed, you can develop a contract that imposes negative consequences if you fail to stay on track.
Let's say you set a realistic goal of losing 30 lbs this year. Track your habits so you know what you are doing well and what you can improve. If desired, you can impose a negative consequence if you don't meet the goal. For example, you could buy your spouse an expensive gift if you fail to lose the weight. Money can be a great motivator, but you can choose whatever works best for you.
7. Use habit stacking.
Let's say you want to pray more often but you just keep forgetting. Think of a habit that you do without even thinking about it. Maybe it's brushing your teeth. Use habit stacking to stack praying on top of brushing your teeth. This means that when you brush your teeth, you also pray. Maybe you want to improve your Fitbit step count. Use habit stacking to accomplish this goal. Let's say you go to the grocery store every Tuesday. Start parking your car at the end of the parking lot to help get in some extra steps. Keep repeating these new habits, and you will soon do them automatically.
Thanks so much for reading! If you want to read more, you can try out Blinkist or get the book here. If any of this resonates with you, please leave me a comment below! Have a wonderful day, and I'll be back soon.
<3 Sierra
Disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Comments