FIGURE 14: The difference between a good day and a bad day is often a few productive and healthy choices made at decisive moments. Each one is like a fork in the
road, and these choices stack up throughout the day and can ultimately lead to very different outcomes.
Decisive moments set the options available to your future self. For
instance, walking into a restaurant is
a decisive moment because it
determines what you’ll be eating for lunch. Technically, you are in control
of what you order, but in a larger sense, you can only order an item if it is
on the menu. If you walk into a steakhouse, you can get a sirloin or a rib
eye, but not sushi. Your options are constrained by what’s available. They
are shaped by the first choice.
We are limited by where our habits lead us. This is why mastering the
decisive moments throughout your day is so important. Each day is made
up of many moments, but it is really a few habitual choices that determine
the path you take. These little choices stack up,
each one setting the
trajectory for how you spend the next chunk of time.
Habits are the entry point, not the end point. They are the cab, not the
gym.
THE TWO-MINUTE RULE
Even when you know you should start small, it’s easy to start too big. When
you dream about making a change, excitement
inevitably takes over and
you end up trying to do too much too soon. The most effective way I know
to counteract this tendency is to use the
Two-Minute Rule, which states,
“When
you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute
version:
“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
“Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”
“Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”
“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”
The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can
meditate for one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away.
And, as we have just discussed, this is a powerful
strategy because once
you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it. A
new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that
follow can be
challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. What you want is a
“gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.
You can usually figure out the gateway habits that will lead to your
desired outcome by mapping out your goals on a scale from “very easy” to
“very hard.” For instance, running a marathon is very hard. Running a 5K is
hard. Walking ten thousand steps is moderately difficult.
Walking ten
minutes is easy. And putting on your running shoes is very easy. Your goal
might be to run a marathon, but your gateway
habit is to put on your
running shoes. That’s how you follow the Two-Minute Rule.
