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- 🫛 Big steps VS small steps
🫛 Big steps VS small steps
why you're stuck
Sending a day late ‘cause I’ve been focusing on spending time with my family who’s in town visiting 🙂
Enjoy today’s Habit Example!
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⚡️ Estimated read time: 1 minute 27 seconds.
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Beans like small ladders.
I know this because I ran a little accidental experiment over the last couple months.
2 summers ago we added trellis arches to our garden for peas and pole beans to grow and climb on.
They seemed to kinda struggle to grow on them though, since it was built with ~18 inch gaps between each rung.
So a couple months ago, my wife asked me to add chicken wire to the arches to give the peas and beans more to grab ahold of as they grow.
Unfortunately I only got one and a half arches done before my project was interrupted.
Weeks went by, then we noticed it: The beans who had the chicken wire to grow on (aka a smaller ladder) were about 2 feet taller than the one side of the arch that had no chicken wire.
Even though we’ve since added chicken wire to that last section of the arch, you can still see the difference between the two here:
Where the arch did have chicken wire from the begging of the summer, the growth was exploding. (image on left)
Wherever it did not have chicken wire from the beginning, the peas/beans are still trying to catch up. (image on right)
When I noticed this the first time, it reminded me of this image:
When steps toward your goal or habit are too big, momentum can be extremely difficult if not impossible.
The only habits I’ve ever been able to be consistent with for long periods of time have been either tiny ones, or ones that started with tiny steps and gradually grew into bigger ones.
Exercising 10 mins a day
Reading 1 page a day
Spending 10 mins with my kid each day
Feeling burnt out from pushing too hard on a new habit?
Cut the daily regimen in half.
Maybe half it again.
A consistently overwhelming habit leads to feelings of failure, disappointment, and thoughts like, “why even try?”
A small habit done consistently builds confidence, can always be added upon, and spurs thoughts like, “wow, I’m getting better every day!”
So if you’ve been struggling with trying to take too big of steps, ask yourself, would you rather make slow progress or no progress?
Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.
What ideas popped in your head while reading? Hit reply and let me know!
BRAIN SNACKS
🎶 Feel Like This (song)
👉 Stolen, borrowed, and learned: 33 random pieces of life advice (5 min read)
👮🏻♂️ Dean Barnes’ military secret for time management (Habit Example from 1 year ago)
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Me: I’m so glad I get to be your daddy!
My 4-year old: I’m so glad I get to catch grasshoppers!
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What did you think of today’s habit example? |
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- Kody
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P.S. These take 5 hours to research, write, and design. It only takes you 5 seconds to share.