“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.” ― Anthony Robbins”
Quite a few years ago, before becoming a certified life coach, I became enamored with the idea of incorporating small, deliberate, and consistent baby steps in my daily life instead of surges of energetic momentum to accomplish my goals.
Why?
Because the joy and motivation I experienced during my surges rarely lasted as the work of meeting goals became more grueling, and I found myself depleted, defeated, and unable to find the momentum to keep going. It’s discouraging to be stuck with no real progress to show for it.
In the coaching world, we call these Mini Habits.
Mini-habits are small, positive steps (routines or rituals) that only take a few minutes out of each day and require little thought. When done consistently and over time, they have a compounded effect on our quality of life and overall happiness, which directly correlates to our ability to sustain the momentum needed to reach goals.
The overall well-being we feel and sense of accomplishment in something small builds over time into something substantial and profound, until one day we realize our small steps of intention led to accomplishing a pretty significant goal.
I entered into the challenge of mini habits with one great success under my belt of writing 3 gratitudes a day throughout the course of several years. I was busy filling my second journal and had over 4,000 gratitudes, spanning about 3 years, so I understood the concept of inspiring hope through this simple, small step. This one mini habit created such a change in perspective over time, particularly during a challenging period of navigating betrayal trauma.
So I added another challenge, and then another, and then another…
- Drinking a glass of water before and after I choose to drink a cup of coffee kept me hydrated.
- Decluttering for no more than 10 minutes before I left work kept my office clean.
- Stretching as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning sent energy through my body and lifted my spirits.
- Turning off all electronics and developing a bedtime ritual helped me fall asleep faster and more deeply.
- Reading 30 minutes a day helped me read more books in a year than during my previous spurts.
- Increasing my retirement contributions by 1% every year over 3 years grew my nest egg faster.
My newest mini-habits, for the mind, body, and soul…
- Lay out my vitamins the night before.
- Use my standing desk at work frequently to increase circulation and focus.
- Eat meals on a smaller plate for healthy weight management.
- Check in with my body several times a day to determine what I’m feeling to stay grounded in the present.
- Breathe deeply several times a day to release tension.
- Pack two boxes a day to get ready for the big move in 8 weeks.
- Climb the stairs to my downtown office instead of taking the elevator to improve cardio health.
Small steps are more manageable and more likely to create continual forward movement than spurts of energetic action. The goal here isn’t mastery or perfection. It’s all about using consistency in small things to create enough satisfaction and joy to impact our quality of life in significant ways that build up over time. The satisfaction we experience will take us to 30 days and beyond by impacting how we feel, how we think, and ultimately, the actions we take toward our future goals.
Mini habits are an important key to inspiring hope, improving quality of life, and creating lasting momentum.
What goal are you wanting to reach in order to improve your quality of life and inspire hope?
What areas have you struggled to experience a consistent level of success because the steps are too big?
How can you implement mini-habits to propel you toward continual, ongoing motion?
From the ‘It’s So Good’ Collection…
MINI HABITS by Stephen Guise
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