Little by Little, Day by Day

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Change is hard… Like, really hard.

And the worst part is even when you get into a positive habit like waking up early, or hitting the gym, or studying daily… it only takes a few missed sessions to feel like you’re back at zero.

Too many times I’ve gotten into a groove where I’m waking up early, studying every day, working out multiple times a week, and I feel like I’m on top of the world.

And then there’s a setback…

The kids get sick, work gets insanely busy, life obligations get in the way.

And now it’s like the hyper-motivated me from a few weeks ago is gone.

Next thing I know I’m hitting snooze, skipping study sessions, and falling into the path of least resistance.

But how do we get back into the routine?

Little by little, day by day.

Maybe some people can pick up where they left off, but for me it requires a herculean effort to try to get back into the groove, and it’s usually not successful.

When you’re trying to get back to your routine, don’t just jump back in head first.

Start small.

One of my favorite sayings is:

“You can build on a habit, no matter how small, but you can’t build on a habit you don’t have”.

Start with 5 minutes of studying, 1 page of a book, waking up just 10 minutes early, doing a quick workout session (or just one set of pushups).

When all of those things are easy, you build on them.

You slowly increase the time, the pages read, or the number of exercises in your workout.

And you take it day by day.

Sure, it takes a lot longer that way, but the result is that you build habits that actually stick.

And even when you’re busy, life happens, etc., you can always resort to that minimum viable version of your habit.

That way even on your busiest week, you can still get a few workouts in, or a few study sessions, and have something to feel good about.

When you’re struggling to build a habit, or get back into a habit, remember this advice:

Little by little, day by day.

Find the smallest version of your habit, and build it over time.

Thanks for reading,

– Josh