Mini Habits, Hats and Hills!

I’m currently listening to Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise again. (Image source: mini habits.com):

One point Guise makes in the opening chapters, and I’m going to paraphrase, is it’s not you, it’s your strategies.

Ponder that … it’s not you, it’s your strategies.

When I heard that again I felt relief and less judgemental of myself. So often when an attempt to change a habit doesn’t work we kick ourselves but repeat the strategy. We think it’s something we’ve done wrong, that we are a failure or have failed. It’s the strategy that needs tweaking.

It might be a great strategy but an event has caused a hiccup, a slight bump in the road. I know that hiccups can often lead to total stoppage, to giving up, to ‘why bother’, but remember it’s a hiccup in the strategy delivery not you. You have all you need to re-start.

Guise’s one push-up strategy that launched him into his research and his Mini Habitsbook and work had me focusing on breaking big goals down, asking, what’s the mini or tiny step I can take that helps create bigger and better results? And, where is this showing up in everyday life?

I noticed on my regular walks that my hat was playing a strategic part to my walks, especially on the more challenging walks. When I had a hill to climb, I’d put my head down and focus on one step at a time, the brim of my hat blocked the ‘massive’ goal from my view so I could only focus on the few steps in front of me. It was ridiculously simple yet totally effective: I’d get to the top of the hill before realising it and as I couldn’t see a big hill in front of me, I kept my focus on the few steps right in front of me so I was less exhausted when I got to the top. Yes, I knew the hill was there but my eyes were locked on what was immediately in front of me.

Simplistic, yes, maybe. And it worked!

Here’s an example from a weekend walk:

1. Take one flight of stairs (okay not a massive goal but you get the idea):

2. Take one hat wearing walker (yours truly):

3. Use brim to block out the big goal so you only see a few steps ahead.

What’s a big goal you’ve not broken down into small parts yet? Are you procrastinating because you don’t know where to start or how to break it down? Have you pushed it aside because it’s currently too big?

As one of America’s original success authors, Robert Collier, said: