How to change themselves and their lives, with only a few free minutes a day

The importance of small efforts to achieve big goals story proves Belle Beth Cooper (Belle Beth Cooper) - the main content guru and co-founder of Buffer Exist intelligence platform. Following the rule of "do little, but regularly" for a year she was able to achieve impressive results:

• devoted to the study of French only 5 minutes a day, Bell learned to fluently read, write and speak French;
• read one page before going to bed, the year she read five times more books than usual.

The secret of this success lies in small daily ritualsPerformed for a long time, from which they are formed and the greatest results. This study also proved researcher at Stanford University B. J.. Fogg (B. J. Fogg).

Any small good habit sooner or later change your life for the better, if you follow the four main principles.

1. Start small and daily repeat one little action

The main reason for the failure to achieve the global objectives - are too high demands on themselves. Between the starting point and the result you want to achieve, it is an abyss. Therefore, in the formation of habits is very important the correct approach.

Writing on the topic of self-blogger James Clear (James Clear) calls this approach is the rule of three R: Reminder (Reminder), Routine (regime) and Reward (promotion).

Three R inseparably linked, and one derived from the other. First R - is a signal which is triggered as a trigger that starts the second R, actually desired action, leading to the third R, i.e. the desired result. A simple and obvious example of life: lights green traffic light, we drive through the intersection and approaching the destination.

At the very beginning it is more important to focus on the regular repetition of habits, not on their performance. In other words, the first number, then quality. For example, you want to save your teeth against caries and, in addition to conventional cleaning using brushes and toothpaste, going to accustom himself flossing. If you start to clean the thread once all the teeth, it will take about 10 minutes - you hold out a maximum of a week. But if in the first week to start with a single tooth, a week to clean the two, then - three and so on, the result will come by itself.

Start small - it's like having superpowers.

Here's how Belle Cooper used the super-strength to achieve their goals.

Reading: one page before bedtime

Despite the fact that Belle could read more, this goal was important because even a single page is already considered a victory. Later, when the well-entrenched habit, Belle put the timer for 15 minutes and read during this time, although in the end it turned out about half an hour reading in the evenings, and the same on most days of morning.

Starting with a single page, she read 22 books in 2014 and as many as 33 in 2015. This is almost five times more than the modest seven books read in 2013!

French: one lesson every morning

Belle tried to learn French before, but its beginnings were not successful. After she was determined to pull up your French, a new daily habit, a ritual in its schedule - the passage of one lesson in Duolingo for morning coffee.

One lesson takes only 5 minutes. This tiny obligation that is easy to perform, sitting around the breakfast table. Ultimately, Bell began to pass two, three and sometimes even four or five lessons, if the process fascinated her.

Do as much as you can, but not less than one.

According to the assessment Duolingo, Belle knows now 41% of the words of the French language. An impressive feat, considering the time required, is not it?

2. Focus on one habit

Experience our heroine has shown that attempts to accustom themselves to a few habits at the same time are doomed to failure. Whatever your ardor, enthusiasm is not enough for all at once. This is the infamous multitasking: Our brains are simply physically can not focus on more than one case at a time. Bell was able to instill the habit of watching and French when reading bedtime became her daily ritual. From all this we can derive the following rule:

Teach yourself to one habit and move on to another only after the first will bring to automatism.

Sometimes fixing habits takes time. All we know about Rule 21 of the dayBut it does not work for everyone and not always. In fact, to accustom himself to get up at six in the morning, Bella took about four months. there is a new studyUnder which to develop habits need 66 days. Perhaps it is closer to the truth, but in general the term addiction is individual and depends on how much you want to radically change their behavior. I wake up at six in the morning, instead of nine have to learn a little bit longer than to get up at seven instead of eight.

3. Remove barriers and keep everything you need at your fingertips

Fulfillment of obligations to oneself always something to prevent, so our task - to remove this "something" and break the vicious circle. If all you need is to fulfill our plans much easier. When the smartphone you already have in your hand to get a French lesson in a mobile application, it is not necessary exert any effort, and when the book is next to the bed, she stretches her hand in front bedtime.

Journalist and author of books on the sociology of Gladwell, Malcolm (Malcolm Gladwell) calls it a turning point. One small and insignificant change can significantly affect the process. Excuses not to do our plans are always up to a certain point, after which make It is easier than not to do.

A striking example of this is studySpent during the vaccination against tetanus at Yale University in the 1970s. No matter how trying to educate the leadership and intimidate students of the danger of disease, wanting to be grafted turnout was negligible. What was the surprise of administration when, after adding to the map of the campus item vaccination indicating the hours of attendance of students has grown from 3 to 28%!

This trick can also be used for fixing habits. Belle has already tested it on myself, and it really works. This year she is going to spend more time playing the piano. Previously, it turned out not so good. But after she moved closer to the kitchen tool, it is much better, because Belle have the opportunity to practice as long as it is waiting for cooking. The second objective, which set a Cooper, are jogging in the morning. She noted that, dressed in a tracksuit, make an effort and go for a jog easier. Therefore I began to put it next to the bed and put on in the morning, while in the head are not ripe next excuse.

4. Create new habits based on the existing

New habits are not necessarily created from scratch. They can easily develop from pre-existing, as a trigger using the old for the new. We are doing a lot of repetitive work, even without thinking about it. At the same time, every day we brush our teeth before going to bed, wake up in the morning and go make coffee - it's also a kind of habit.

The idea is to add to the existing chain of actions, new, necessary to us. Belle woven into a chain of "morning - coffee" French lesson and was able without any problem to give classes a little time each day. With reading before bedtime, she enrolled in the same way, tying a new habit to trigger "go to bed."

A recent study showed that the related activities are one of the most effective ways to secure new habits and can ensure compliance with them in the future. The key to success - to create habits, laying bricks on the existing foundation, rather than building from scratch.

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Big changes do not happen by themselves. To achieve any goal, you need to go to it. Let the small and uncertain, but approaching the inevitable result of steps. Even tiny efforts, if they put the time, sooner or later will lead to great achievements.