The Secret to Big Goals? Micro Habits
We join the gym in January only to drop out by March again. Same thing with learning a language, reading more books, etc. We get excited, we start, we stop.
But there is a solution — micro habits.
Micro habits are activities that you do every day to improve yourself. But you intentionally keep the effort low. This is to improve adherence.
For example, you might agree with yourself to read just one paragraph in a business book every day. This commitment is so ridiculously low that you can easily see it through, even on days when you don’t feel like studying.
Most people will sneeze at an effort that tiny. They would rather read 10 or 20 pages a day and blaze through a new book each month.
Or so they think. Because in reality, almost nobody goes through with that plan.
I call this the “New Year’s resolution fallacy.” Once your initial enthusiasm wears off, you realize how unsustainable your approach is. You abandon the new behavior and have achieved nothing.
But if you stay with your one-paragraph-a-day rule, in a few short years, you will have read multiple business classics and internalized that valuable knowledge. That knowledge will translate into better decisions and ultimately more wealth.
That is the power of micro habits — by keeping them small, they actually get done.
Why We Behave So Irrationally
I mentioned the New Year’s resolution fallacy — people join the gym in January, go every day, and burn out by March. Nothing is accomplished this way. Yet we all have gotten caught up in this dynamic ourselves.
The problem is the high we get from starting fresh. I call this “new project energy.” It works similarly to a drug like cocaine. Everything suddenly seems possible (“The world is my oyster!”).
There is another powerful emotion clouding your judgment — greed. We hate to wait for results that might be years in the making. We want results, and we want them yesterday.
So, driven by our greed, we bite off more than we can chew. We do these 3-hour sessions at the gym. We commit to studying for 10 hours a day. We try to build a million-dollar business by pulling all-nighters.
Overenthusiasm + greed — and all reason goes out the window.
“But I know this one person …”
As a coach, I have heard the same couple of justifications over and over again. The most popular one: “But I know this one person who changed their lives overnight. They hustled hard and in 3 months, they became a billionaire with chiseled abs.”
I have a couple of responses to that.
First, how well do you know this magic person really? Have you spent several weeks with them? Have you seen them operate on a day-to-day basis? Have you seen their bank account statements?
In most instances, it turns out you don’t know that person. You probably only know the facade they present to the world on their Instagram account.
But even if their success is real, the “zero to hero” narrative rarely checks out. That’s because the hero is not telling the full story.
For example, people often have forgotten how small they started. Many high performers developed their skills at a very young age. They simply don’t remember practicing the guitar for 5 minutes a day at age 6 — not for 8 hours, as they do now at age 30.
Also, a lot of people have no interest in telling you about their slow beginnings. They would much rather tell you the story of them being these ultra-driven hustler types. It makes them feel elite.
Finally, a lot of people arguing for the “zero to hero” approach are trying to sell you something (a course, a book, etc.). They understand how addicted consumers are to quick successes, and how unsexy micro habits sound.
Yet, virtually no one succeeds with brute force, while I have seen plenty of people succeed with the slow approach.
3 Types of Micro Habits
There are three types of micro habits:
Static
Incremental
Flexible
1. Static Micro Habits
Static micro habits don’t change. They are simple behavior changes, that, once implemented, just need to be repeated.
For example, drinking a glass of water in the morning right after waking up is a static micro habit. You drink that glass of water to make sure you are properly hydrated. But you don’t try to build out the habit over time. There is no point in drinking 5 or 10 glasses of water in the morning.
2. Incremental Micro Habits
With incremental micro habits, there is a build-up. You start very small, but then over time improve your quota.
For example, you might start doing a push-up every day. That is a very low effort, and thus, easy to stick with. But once you have established this habit — maybe after two to three weeks — you then go up to two push-ups a day. You give it another few weeks, then go up to three daily push-ups. And so on.
3. Flexible Micro Habits
There is a third type of micro habit — the flexible micro habit.
Here, you define a low minimum quota, e.g., doing one push-up a day. But that doesn’t mean you can only do one push-up. If you feel like it, do 20. If you are bursting with energy, do 100. But the next day, there is no obligation to keep that number up. If you only do one push-up tomorrow, you are fine.
All of these variations have their place. Some micro habits only require a static approach. Your most important projects should be translated into incremental micro habits. “Nice to have” behaviors are best served as flexible micro habits.
How To Implement Micro Habits
Here are three strategies to succeed with micro habits.
1. Start With One Micro Habit, Not Several
The whole point of micro habits is to make things easy on yourself. By lowering the bar, you are more likely to go through with the new behavior.
However, if you simultaneously add 10 micro habits, that defeats the point. Each micro habit by itself might be tiny, but in sum, they present a real challenge. The result — you stop doing them.
This is another variation of our greed playing tricks on us. We want too much too quickly, and that never works.
So, do the boring, smart thing. Start with one micro habit and let it solidify for several weeks. Only then do you add another micro habit.
2. Link Behaviors
It helps to link a new behavior to an already established behavior.
For example, you might do a pull-up every time you come back from the bathroom. Or you might listen to a philosophy podcast every time you do the dishes. Or you might read a paragraph in a business book right after waking up.
This type of anchoring helps with decision fatigue. You don’t need to decide anew every day when you will execute the habit. It is already decided.
3. Create Accountability
One of the best ways to build new habits is to create accountability. Studies have shown again and again that when you must report to somebody, you are more likely to do what you said you would do.
This other person could be a friend. It could be a virtual accountability buddy. It could be a coach (like yours truly).
Whoever it is, establish a process. For example, each day by a certain time, you must send them a message stating, “Did my 5 push-ups today.” If that message doesn’t come, they must call you to find out what the problem is.
In essence, it must be virtually impossible for you to weasel out of your commitment.
I have been deep in monk mode for the last couple of weeks, even more so than usual. Wanted to make progress with some things. But my brother is coming to visit in a few days, and we might have a night out (which happens very rarely for me, maybe once or twice a year). I am both looking forward to it and slightly afraid of the day after. Or the days after — your ability to recover really goes down as you grow older. Oh my.
Talk to you soon!
Niels