We always want to develop good habits and become excellent people, but for most people, it is very difficult to stick to a good habit or achieve a goal. Because there is no motivation, weak willpower, pressure, hesitation...

For example, if you exercise for an hour every day, insist on going to bed early and getting up early, and practice calligraphy for half an hour every day, due to various reasons, if you don't stick to it, the results will also be As expected.

You might as well try mini habits. Mini habits are incredibly small and insignificant repetitive positive behaviors. As the subtitle of this book says: self-management rules that are so simple that you can’t fail. The concept of mini habits was proposed by Stephen Gass. Like most ordinary people, he was not satisfied with the current situation of life and avoided changes. Because he wanted his life to be more exciting, he learned from the experience and was determined to change. After 10 years of continuous exploration and research from a scientific perspective, he came up with "Mini Habits: Self-management rules that are so simple that they cannot fail".

"Mini Habits" is not only a guide to permanently cultivate healthy habits, but also a self-control guidance manual. This book talks about the habit-building process, the brain, willpower, and motivation, and the relationship between these factors. Eight steps teach you how to establish mini habits. What are the effects of establishing mini habits?

A study by Duke University shows that 45% of our behaviors are based on habits. For example, every day in our lives, if we are used to brushing our teeth and washing our face every day, we will be full of energy and energetic every day. If you get used to reading for 1 hour every day, you will read 365 hours more every year. Assuming that most people read 300 words per minute, they will read 6,570,000 more words per year, which is equivalent to reading 65.7 books of 100,000 words per year. This is beyond most people. And this excellent habit cannot be established immediately, it needs to be shaped through continuous repetition over a long period of time.

First, let’s understand how habits work in our brains?

Its working mechanism is this: Once a certain habit-forming neural pathway is triggered by an idea or external signal, there will be an electric charge in the brain that continuously discharges along this neural pathway, and then you There will be a strong desire to engage in this habit.

For example: if you brush your teeth and wash your face as soon as you wake up every day, there will be a neural pathway associated with the behavior of brushing your teeth and washing your face. This "brush your teeth and wash your face" neuron will discharge, and then you will involuntarily walk over to brush your teeth and wash your face like a zombie. This behavior does not require thinking at all. This is the magic of having a habit. As a habit becomes ingrained, the neural pathways associated with it become thicker and stronger.

The formation of habits requires repeated execution, and the most important thing about mini habits is motivation and willpower. If we really want to do something, we don't need willpower to force us to do it. The problem is that some habits are counter-human or when we are tired or sick, it is difficult for us to rely on motivation to do this. We can only rely on motivation to complete these habits when we have sufficient physical and mental energy and are not under strong temptation.

For some people, they can’t get up early in the winter and feel very sleepy. At this moment, we and the quilt are in love with each other, and nothing can separate us. There are no ideas or inspirational quotes that can make us get up right away, and we have no reason or motivation to leave our dear little bed. We just want to be so tender with our dear ones.

It will be difficult for us to get up if we rely solely on motivation. On the contrary, if you use your willpower, it will be easy. And willpower is not inexhaustible. A study on self-control found that people who made a tough decision on the same day were more likely to give in to temptation later on.

Then the past habit-building methods based on motivation have failed, and mini-habits consume very little willpower to implement trivial behaviors.

In "Mini Habits", very small goals or plans are set so that you have enough motivation or willpower to execute them. If you are asked to do a push-up now, two villains, the devil and the angel, will appear in your brain. The devil will say: No, I want to play a game now; the angel will say: Do it now, it is very simple. When hesitating, you can first make a "down" posture. When you take the first step, you are in motion, and as the laws of physical motion show: once you start, it is difficult to stop. So let’s start your first mini habit.

Eight steps of mini habits:

How long does it take to develop mini habits?

You must have heard of or seen somewhere the 21-day weight loss method and the 21-day quick calligraphy practice. And this idea that you can develop a rule in 21 days is a common fallacy. The “21 Days” fallacy originated from Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon. Dr. Maltz found that it took amputee patients about 21 days to adjust to the fact that their body was disabled, so he believed that 21 days was the length of time it took for people to adapt to any life change.

Regarding the time required for habitual behavior, the most cited study was published in the "European Journal of Social Psychology" in 2009, and the conclusion was that the time required for different behaviors varies greatly. It ranges from 18 days to 254 days. It depends on habits and individuals. It takes an average of 66 days to turn a behavior into a habit.

A mini habit is an incredibly small behavior with no deadline or deadline.

What are the effects of developing mini habits?

We will no longer be intimidated by ambitious goals and plans, nor will we suffer from the anxiety and guilt caused by not achieving them. The other is the strengthening of willpower. Willpower requires endurance, so repetitive small tasks are an ideal way to strengthen willpower.

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Everything is difficult at the beginning. Start with a small step and persevere, and you will achieve unexpected success. As the saying goes, "A single spark can start a prairie fire." I believe it. The potential of starting a prairie fire will make your life more exciting.