You know the drill. Set an annual goal, train like a maniac, and aim for peak performance in one big race. After all that effort, you’re bound to hit your target and reach success, right? Wrong! Everyday habits for huge results have little to do with the grandiose goals you set and everything to do with the systems you set up to follow every day. Real change comes from the compound effects of hundreds of small decisions or habits that accumulate over time to produce remarkable results. See why small everyday habits lead to big change.
Focus on everyday habits for huge success
According to habit guru James Clear, improving a habit by one percent a day every day for a year will show a 37x improvement. Sometimes a tiny fraction of a step in the right direction, compounded over the long run, is way more impactful than burning yourself out with too much, too fast. The most effective outcomes are delayed and steady.
Where to start
Goals tend to be more achievable when they are attractive, easy, and satisfying. When you fall in love with the process rather than the end goal, you don’t have to wait to be happy. You can feel a sense of accomplishment anytime your process is running, which will motivate you to do it again tomorrow and the day after that. So many folks tout the use of affirmations because the habit of saying something out loud every day makes it a part of your identity over time. If you wake up and say, “I will earn the rank of Director 300 by the end of this month,” you’ll be reminded of that mindset to start your day every morning.
Other everyday habits for huge results:
- Contact six people every day via phone, text, or social media
- Invite one prospect a week to join a 3-way chat with your upline
- Post one video tutorial or testimonial a week about your product experience
- Post one social media post per day about the products or people you are working with
- Talk to one new person each day and ask if they want more information
We need first to build systems made of single processes that will lead to the outcome we want. A method created by BJ Fogg as part of his Tiny Habits program can be used to design an obvious cue for nearly any habit. “After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” The key is to tie your new habit (like calling six prospects) into something you already do each day, like checking the mail after lunch, or crafting a daily social post after you make your morning coffee.
Make your new habits obvious
When it comes to our habits, our environment is the invisible hand that shapes our behavior. If you’re trying to eat fewer sweets and focus on health, you put fruit on display all over your kitchen and at eye level in the fridge. You start with the fruit you like most, so you are motivated to eat it. You make it easy by using fruit that isn’t hard to prepare, like bananas. Conversely, you can do the opposite for bad habits. Make them invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying. Get a calendar and mark every day that you perform your small habit.
The key to getting a habit to stick is to feel successful, even if in a small way. The feeling of success is a signal to your brain that this habit is paying off and the work is worth the effort. This is why immediate results are essential. Showing up even on your bad days allows you to see the building of success, even on a one-percent scale. You don’t need to do your absolute best every day. You just need to do something to keep your habit chain going. When you’re compounding your small habits, the easiest thing you can do is never to interrupt your momentum. Even low-energy workouts at the gym are still better than no workout at the gym—they keep your momentum going and keep your habit-forming strong.
Start today, start small, don’t stop
The salient point is that these little things can add up to a big difference in the long run. They’re simple, they’re easy, and they’re downright adorable — it’s no wonder they work so well. Being committed and consistently motivated will get you so much farther than sporadically excited. Don’t give up on big goals; instead, find ways to make their successes a daily habit.