Make it small and easy #smeasy

I hope you had a nice weekend? Monday is often the day when people attempt to overhaul their lives and tell themselves that they are going to change everything and become their best selves.

As you know, I’m not a fan of overhauling everything at once because it will not last.

If you have been following me for a long time and, for some reason, have still not read Atomic Habits - please do. This book changed my life.

I realised I was setting big goals when I was feeling motivated and disciplined but, deep down, I’m actually quite lazy. I then realised I had to make the new behaviours that I wanted to adopt small and easy if I actually wanted to keep them up.

I used to go to yoga classes in Bali. They were 90 minutes long and I would feel great after so I promised I would keep them up. Then it would be a week later and I realised that I hadn’t done another one all week.

Do you know what worked? Downloading the DownDog app and aiming for 5 minutes a day at home. Easy.

And then what happened? Without really trying that hard, I felt the benefits.

I used to set a reading goal of a book a week. When it got to Wednesday and I was not half way through a book, I would just give up on the goal.

So, instead, I aimed for 5 pages a day. I did not get through a book a week, but I still got through a book. And it felt easy.

And of course, the obvious one: if I wanted to lose weight in the past, I would try and eat as little as possible during the week to create a huge calorie deficit. But when I couldn’t stick to it by Thursday, I would end up eating all around me for the end of the week and end up in an overall calorie surplus.

After years of trying and failing to lose weight, I eventually decided to make it easy by creating a small calorie deficit each day. It meant that I didn’t get to Thursday starving and I was able to keep that slight calorie deficit up all week.

Did I drop weight fast? No. But in the long run I realised I had gotten leaner without feeling like I was even trying.

If you are thinking of implementing any new habit this week, make it as small and easy as possible (#smeasy) You might be feeling motivated and disciplined today but do your future self a favour and keep it simple.

Play to your strengths. I realised that I can’t read at night without falling asleep so I do it first thing, before I get distracted by my phone.

I’ve realised that if I don’t do my yoga in the morning, there is zero chance of me rolling out the mat in the afternoon.

So I’ve created a morning routine that makes it all easy for me (another reason to read Atomic Habits).

When you practice patience and start seeing the results of these small habits, you can then choose to increase or change them. Now, I crave a long yoga session in the morning and I read for at least 30 minutes.

Plan your goals, and the habits required, around your Friday self rather than your Monday self.

Have a great week!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan “laziest motivated person around” O’Hagan