I want to talk about a concept that was introduced to me by the book “Atomic Habits” – by James Clear. This rule helps you to build habits that stick in your life.
What is the 2-minute rule?
The two-minute rule is simple – if you cannot start a habit or cannot stick to one, just do the 2-minute version of it. If you cannot meditate for 10 minutes, just get yourself in a lotus position and nothing more, if you have a hard time sticking to a yoga routine – just lay down your yoga mat, if you have a hard time running every day – just put your shoes on and then remove them.
What is the idea behind this method of building habits?
Habits are made by repetition; the book tells us that you cannot have a straightforward answer on “How long does it take to build a habit?” because it depends on how much you repeat a given action. Habits are sometimes hard to build because we want to be able to do something incredible from the start. We want to do a full-time workout from our first day at the gym and stick to it. The problem is that you are setting yourself for failure because you change something in your life or day way too quickly. You won’t be able to stick to a habit if you start with something incredibly hard for you right now. When you start repeating the first step of one habit over and over again it will signal you that this thing is trying to stick in your life and over time you will want to proceed. When you put on your shoes for a run it will automatically indicate that you are going out and doing that action. You will be more motivated to continue the action, meaning that when you put your shoes on you will say to yourself “Well I already have my shoes on so why don’t I just go for a quick run nearby”. You will want more and more just by doing the first step because you already started doing it, so why not finish the idea that “I want to run every day to be healthy”.
Repetition, Repetition and more repetition
By doing just the 2-minute version of your habit over and over again you will create the most crucial step on building a habit – the first step. We tend to want something but we get demotivated by doing the first step. When you put your shoes on and you are mentally prepared to run – you are more likely to do it. So by repeating a boring 2 min version of your intended habit you increase your chance of this habit sticking in your life, you make this first step become automatic which later on signals you to further do the activities related to it. Over time you will expand it – you will start running more minutes, then more miles and if you wish to – you can try a marathon.
In the end
Habits are a crucial thing in one person’s life - they define your identity. By these repetitive, and sometimes boring, actions you become what you are. Habits are a reminder to us that we have become or are becoming this desired identity. So by utilizing methods like this you increase your chance for success in becoming the better version of yourself. And until next time – peace and love <3