Embarking on a journey of personal growth involves various steps: defining goals, contemplating psychotherapy, or establishing plans. However, the most effective yet often undervalued step begins with the cultivation of new habits. Habits serve as reliable companions, guiding you toward a more productive lifestyle.
Committing yourself to meaningful activities and habits, despite potential challenges, is also crucial for fostering mental well-being.
The 2-Minute Rule for Habit Creation
Make a habit easy to do, not perfect to do.
Repetition is the cornerstone of habit formation and making them easily doable is the catalyst. This is the key idea that will set you into action. Often, we spend too much time perfecting what we want to do without ever taking the initial steps.
There are several ways to make a habit easy to do, and one of the simplest is the 2-minute rule. This rule states the key to successfully adopting a new habit is to ensure that the initial attempts will take less than two minutes. The 2-minute rule acts as a defusion strategy, helping you overcome the countless reasons your mind conjures to keep you in your comfort zone rather than trying new activities. By committing to a very short period, you effectively unhook yourself from these non-workable thoughts. A thought is non-workable if it does not propel you toward the life you want to live.
The 2-minute rule also offers another significant benefit—it acts as a gateway habit. A gateway habit opens the gate to more challenging endeavors, setting the stage for cultivating habits that naturally lead to a more productive path.
How to Implement the 2-Minute Rule
Follow these simple steps
Choose a habit you've been putting off.
Reduce it to a 2-minute activity.
Download a habit-tracking app and add it to the list.
Commit to doing it every single day.
For instance:
I want to run for 10k 3 times a week.
I will start by running 2 minutes a day / 3 times a week.
I will record my commitment by using a tracking app.
I will check if I am committed by reviewing my records.
While the 2-minute rule is powerful, it's essential to recognize that you can fail to follow it. Other strategies can be employed and combined with the 2=minute rule to transform your willingness to do into doing.
In conclusion, the art of habit formation is a journey of small, intentional steps. The 2-minute rule, combined with the philosophy of making habits easy to do (not perfect to do), opens doors to a more productive and fulfilling life. In future posts, I will address other ways to overcome procrastination and explore in detail 'defusion' and 'workability', two important ideas you can leverage to improve your mental health.
References
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: Tiny changes, remarkable results ; an easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Random House.
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