tiny momentum habits

you've tried building new habits before. you went hard for two weeks, then fell off. then you beat yourself up about it. then you tried again. then you fell off again. rinse and repeat until you concluded that you just don't have enough discipline.

wrong diagnosis. the problem was never discipline. it was dose.

why big commitments fail

when you commit to "go to the gym every day" or "meditate for 30 minutes each morning," your brain does a quick cost-benefit analysis and quietly vetoes the plan. the perceived effort is too high, the reward too distant, and the couch too comfortable.

this isn't a character flaw. it's how brains work. they're wired to conserve energy and avoid uncertain returns. the bigger the commitment, the harder your brain fights against it.

the absurdly small solution

instead of committing to flossing all your teeth, commit to flossing one tooth. instead of 30 minutes of meditation, commit to one conscious breath. instead of an hour at the gym, commit to putting on your workout shoes.

sounds ridiculous, right? that's exactly the point.

when the commitment is so small it feels almost insulting, two things happen:

1. you actually do it - your brain can't manufacture a valid excuse to skip something that takes 10 seconds
2. momentum kicks in - once you've flossed one tooth, the floss is already in your hand. might as well do a few more. once you've taken one breath, you're already sitting there. might as well do five more.

the physics of habit formation

newton's first law applies to behavior: an object at rest stays at rest. an object in motion stays in motion. the hardest part of any habit is the initial movement from zero to one. make that first movement as effortless as possible and physics handles the rest.

after a week of flossing one tooth, you'll be flossing all of them without even thinking about it. the habit formed not because you forced it, but because you removed the friction from getting started.

your assignment

take whatever habit you've been failing at and shrink it to something embarrassingly small. then do only that for two weeks straight. no more. resist the urge to scale up too fast. let the momentum build naturally.

the person who flosses one tooth every single day will always beat the person who flosses perfectly for two weeks and then quits for six months.

start small. start today. let momentum do the heavy lifting.

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