When most people try to start a new habit \u2014 like exercise, meditation, waking early, journaling \u2014 they tend to try to go as hard as they can. And in doing so, they set themselves up for failure.<\/p>\n
I have a friend who wanted to start running, for example. Every time they ran, they would do it as fast as they could, so they were always really winded. That\u2019s Too Fast, Too Soon (title of my new action movie franchise). It\u2019ll lead to failure for most people.<\/p>\n
Another person I talked to wanted to start waking up at 5am, two hours earlier than they were usually awake. They said they were worried they wouldn\u2019t be able to stick to it for long. I agreed: you could probably do it for a few days, but you\u2019ll crash and burn, most likely.<\/p>\n
Now, going hardcore is possible, if you dedicate your entire life to this one change, and reduce all other commitments and stressors. You\u2019d have to set up a lot of structure and support to make it work. But your odds of long term success go way down, just like a crash diet.<\/p>\n
So I always recommend starting small. But there\u2019s a more sophisticated technique, that I call \u201cautoregulation\u201d (borrowed from biology) that I\u2019d like to share with you.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it works, in brief:<\/p>\n
If you follow this autoregulation method, you\u2019ll make your habit easier when it\u2019s needed, and make it more difficult when you have the capability to handle it.<\/p>\n
Some days, you\u2019re just busy, or tired, or stressed. On those days, take a break. Then come back the next day with a decreased habit goal (exercise 2 minutes shorter, wake 5 minutes later, etc.) to make it easier on yourself.<\/p>\n
Some days, you have lots of energy and focus. On those days, it\u2019s entirely appropriate to get to continue to increase the habit, slowly.<\/p>\n
Using this method, you\u2019ll increase your habit slowly, at a pace that\u2019s appropriate for your capacity. If your body can\u2019t handle increasing the exercise, take a break and then come back with an easier target.<\/p>\n
This time-based approach works for a lot of habits: meditation, journaling, writing, learning a language. It doesn\u2019t work as well if you\u2019re changing your diet, but you can still use the same principles: slowly move closer to your target eating pattern each day, but give yourself breaks and slow down your progress as needed.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re trying to procrastinate less, this can work too \u2014 start a daily habit of doing short focus sessions (start with 10 minutes, once a day) and increase by 10 minutes as long as you\u2019re able to stick to the plan. For example, on Day 2, do a 20-minute focus session. On Day 3, do one 10-minute focus session and one 20-minute focus session. On Day 4, do two 20-minute focus sessions. Keep adding 10 minutes as long as you stick to it. If on Day 5 you don\u2019t do the focus sessions, decrease by 10 minutes on Day 6.<\/p>\n
At some point, you should stop increasing \u2014 perhaps when you get to your goal (waking at 5am, exercising for 40 minutes a day, etc.). But it\u2019s possible your goal will change as you do this, and you can find the level that\u2019s right for you to stop increasing through this method of slow change.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s the autoregulation method for changing habits. It\u2019s a compassionate approach that\u2019s meant to increase your odds of long-term success. Give it a shot!<\/p>\n
Btw, if you\u2019d like to practice with others, I created The Practice in my\u00a0Fearless Living Academy<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to have our members practicing with this together, with structure, accountability and community.\u00a0Come join us<\/a>!<\/p>\n The post How to Autoregulate Your Habits<\/a> appeared first on zen habits<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Leo Babauta When most people try to start a new habit \u2014 like exercise, meditation, waking early, journaling \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[180],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132076,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132075\/revisions\/132076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}