Part 2
Do Better
Develop better habits & increase your productivity with lessons inspired by Why We Do What We Do, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself & Elastic Habits.
Week 3
Introduction
Lesson 7
Lesson 8
Lesson 9
Fail-Proofing Your Daily Habits
Week 4
Introduction
Lesson 10
Lesson 11
Lesson 12
Β Lesson 9
Fail-Proofing Your Daily Habits
Insight inspired by Elastic Habits (Stephen Guise)
In his book Elastic Habits, Stephen Guise writes,
βSelf-discipline is a skill, but itβs only possible to sustain it through freedom of choice.β
The reason weβre starting with this quote is that before we craft your daily habits, I want you to know that with these new habits you still have a choice. Freedom of choice is essential. Up until now, you may have viewed habits as a jail sentence.
BUTβ¦ with todayβs micro-lesson I want you to know that the choice is no longer between doing the new habit or not doing the habit. Weβre going to move away from this polarizing relationship with habits. Weβre no longer doing our habits from our feelings, weβre doing them because itβs who we are.
You are a healthy person now. You are fit. You are smart. You are a writer. You are a leader. You are a ________. And because thatβs who you are, you no longer view your habits as optional.
Instead of win/lose options, weβre going to switch to win/win with our habits. Today, we will set two levels for each habit in each of our categories.
The reason weβre doing this is because if youβve ever failed at consistently sticking with your habits, my guess is that life got in the way. Thatβs why 99% of goals are never reached. In a perfect world, with all the time and money in the world, healthy habits would be much easier to achieve.
But thatβs not the world most of us are living in. The world most of us are living in includes difficult days at work. Not getting enough sleep. Being in a bad mood. I could go on and on. Life isnβt perfect, so we need to set our goals with flexibility and margin in mind.
Thatβs what βElastic Habitsβ are all about. Itβs about bullet-proofing your intentions and setting at least 2 win/win levels for your daily habits.
For example, for your exercising habit, it could mean setting a normal daily goal of a 1-Mile Run (that should be achievable on a normal day) but also having a backup goal of a Walk Around the Block. The reason this is important is 1) It keeps your mental game in the right place by not breaking the habit muscle 2) When you do your backup goal youβll often go farther than you thought you could (β…an object in motion stays in motionβ)
Here are my intention/habit categories and the elastic levels Iβve created:
πΉ Spiritual/Soul
Bible Reading 1 chapter or 1 verse
πΉ Exercise
30-min Weightlifting or 25 Pushups
πΉ Learning
30-min Reading a Book or Listening to a Podcast
πΉ Relationships
Call a friend or send an encouraging text
πΉ Create
Write for 30-min or come up with 10 article ideas
Action
Create Elastic Levels
Take some time to create 2 levels of habits for each of your categories. One normal level and one fall-back level you can hit no matter what.
Community
Don't Do It Alone
Join the conversation in our private community and connect with others about each micro-lesson.