Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results

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Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Stephen Guise (Author, Publisher), Daniel Penz (Narrator)

4.5 4,398 ratings

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One afternoon - after another failed attempt to get motivated to exercise - I (accidentally) started my first mini habit. I initially committed to do one push-up, and it turned into a full workout. I was shocked. This "stupid idea" wasn't supposed to work. I was shocked again when my success with this strategy continued for months (and to this day). I had to consider that maybe I wasn't the problem in those 10 years of mediocre results. Maybe it was my prior strategies that were ineffective, despite being oft-repeated as "the way to change" in countless books and blogs.

I was right.

Is there a scientific explanation for this?

As I sought understanding, I found a plethora of scientific studies that had answers, with nobody to interpret them correctly. Based on the science - which you'll find peppered throughout Mini Habits - we've been doing it all wrong.

You can succeed without the guilt, intimidation, and repeated failure associated with such strategies as "getting motivated," New Year's Resolutions, or even "just doing it." In fact, you need to stop using those strategies if they aren't giving you great results. They don't work because they all require you to fight against your subconscious brain (a fight not easily won). It's only when you start playing by your brain's rules and taking your human limitations seriously--as mini habits show you how to do - that you can achieve lasting change.

Listening Length

3 hours and 40 minutes
Author

Stephen Guise
Narrator

Daniel Penz
Audible release date

April 2, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Stephen Guise
ASIN

B00JFHLUPI
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	3 hours and 40 minutes
Author	Stephen Guise
Narrator	Daniel Penz
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	April 02, 2014
Publisher	Stephen Guise
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00JFHLUPI
Best Sellers Rank	#23,361 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #145 in Self-Esteem (Audible Books & Originals) #300 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Audible Books & Originals) #474 in Self-Esteem (Books)

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4.5 out of 5

4,398 global ratings

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Lady Quixote

New Year’s Resolutions Fail 92% of the Time. But Mini Habits WORKS

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

(This review was completely rewritten on December 26, 2018. Because WOW, Mini Habits has totally changed my life!)

According to the University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology (2012), New Year’s resolutions have an abysmal success rate of only 8%.

What this means, of course, is that 92% of all the New Year’s resolutions that will be made six days from now, are never going to happen. The majority of these resolutions will fall by the wayside within the first couple of weeks.

I was looking back over my old blog posts recently and I saw where I had made the declaration on New Year’s Day in 2016 that I was going to finish writing my memoir by the end of that year. And it never happened.

About 80% of us intend to write a book someday, according to what I have read. And, for the vast majority of people, that “someday” for writing a book never comes.

The first time I tried to write a story about my life, I was in my twenties. I thought I was ready to tell my real-life horror to healing story, but I wasn’t even close to being ready.

Today, four decades later, thanks to all the healing therapy that I have had in recent years, I know that I’m as ready as I will ever be to share my story with the world. But even so, writing my memoir is still very hard. It is all too easy, on any given day, to come up with one excuse after another for putting off writing. “I’ll do it tomorrow!”

But tomorrow never comes. All we have is today.

Sometimes, like when I made a determined New Year’s resolution, I would get all excited and write like my brain was on fire for several mega productive days in a row. But sooner or later, something always happened that seemed bigger than my ability to write, and I wouldn’t get any writing done that day.

Sometimes the problem might simply be a headache. At other times, I was just too tired to write. I might get some worrisome news from someone I love, or maybe see something on the national news that upset me. Some days I was too busy running errands, or doing laundry, or taking care of our rescue dogs.

There were also many times when I was planning to write a part of my story that was especially painful to think about, and on that particular day I would rather think happier thoughts and enjoy where my life is right now. For all of these and many other reasons, I kept setting my manuscript aside, intending to come back to it tomorrow, or next week, or next month — or next year.

This has been my reality for far too many years. Trying and failing, and trying and failing, and trying and failing again, to write a memoir. Even on those days when my writing was going great, I was rarely capable of keeping up the momentum for long. Usually, one solid week of writing every day was the best I could manage at a time. Which is pretty much the longevity of the average New Year’s resolution!

Writing so sporadically kills the continuity, too. I kept losing the “flow” in my writing. For this reason, even though I tried really hard to pick up where I had left off, I found that I couldn’t do it, after too many days of not writing had gone by. Which means I kept starting my memoir all over again. I haven’t kept count, but I probably did this hundreds of times.

More than anything that I may ever accomplish in this life, I want to finish and publish my memoir. Lord willing, I don’t want to take my story to the grave.

But I am not going to make another New Year’s resolution next week, only to fail before the month is out. And that’s okay, because I don’t need to make any more New Year’s resolutions to write my memoir. Why? Because 111 days ago, on September 7, 2018, I discovered an entirely new way of getting myself to write, every single day.

So far, this new way of building a daily writing habit is working perfectly for me. For the past 110 days, I have not missed a single day of meeting my memoir writing goal. (I haven’t done today’s memoir writing yet, which is why I say 110 days, instead of 111. But I have no doubt that I will meet my writing goal for today, before I go to bed tonight.)

I met my writing goal even on November 20, when my doctor told me that I had skin cancer and needed surgery right away. I met my writing goal on Thanksgiving, as we traveled to be with family. I met my writing goal on December 6, when I checked into the hospital and had surgery under general anesthesia. I met my writing goal on the day after my surgery, when I was in pain and feeling very woozy. I met my writing goal while my husband and I have been battling a miserable flu of some kind for the past couple of weeks. Through headaches, stomach aches, and coughing fits that almost made me pass out, I have met my writing goal every single day.

And then there was Christmas! That’s right, I met my writing goal on Christmas eve and on Christmas day.

When people came to visit, I met my writing goal. When we had places to go and errands to run, I met my writing goal. When I got some very bad news about my precious aunt, and when I read things in the news media that shattered my heart, I met my writing goal. Even when I was writing very hard things, I still met my writing goal. Regardless of what has been going on, even on the most challenging of days, I have met my writing goal every day for the past 110 days, without missing one single day.

I have never been able to do this before. It’s like a miracle — and yet, this method is completely natural — which is why it works so well!

This new way that I have found to reach my daily writing goal, doesn’t just work for writing. This method works for any kind of goal that you may want to implement in your life. Five days after I started my memoir writing goal on September 7, I added two daily exercise goals and one daily housework goal. And I haven’t missed any of those goals, either, since I started my three additional goals on September 12. For the past 105 days, through all of the ups and downs: cancer scare, surgery, being sick, bad news, and the holidays, I have met every one of my four daily goals, every single day.

Not only have I met my goals every day — on the vast majority of days I have actually exceeded my goals, usually by a tremendous amount.

With the exception of having the flu and my recent surgery — which turned out NOT to be cancer, yay! — this is the best my life has been, EVER. Thanks to all the planks I’m doing and the miles I’m putting on my exercise bike, my muscle tone is the best that it’s been in decades. Best of all, I have written so much further than I’ve ever written in my memoir before — and I am still going strong!

So — how is this even possible? When 92% of New Year’s Resolutions fail, when approximately 80% of us want to write a book and never do, and when the vast majority of exercise programs fall by the wayside within the first month — after all the years that I have tried, and failed, over and over again, to write a memoir and to get my muscles in better shape — HOW am I doing this?

Here’s how: I bought a book. I read it. And I did what it said.

I have read countless self-help, how to write, how to overcome writer’s block, and how to stop procrastinating books, within the past half century. And yet all of those books failed me, just like my New Year’s resolutions always failed.

But Mini Habits by Stephen Guise actually works.

Take it from an expert in trying and failing to meet an important goal: forget New Year’s resolutions. Whether your goal is getting in shape, cleaning up a terminally messy house, writing a book, pursuing higher education, or whatever you want to accomplish, if Mini Habits can work for me, I believe it can work for anybody.

What’s so different about Mini Habits? The science behind it, that’s what’s different. Mini Habits works, because this is the way our amazing brains were created to work.

Thank you for reading my review. God bless, and have a Happy Mini Habits New Year!

51 people found this helpful

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Ben Marlin

Mini Habits work

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

Mini Habits work. Here's my proof:

For many years, I was a regular exerciser. My zeal for exercising ebbed and flowed, but I always did something on a regular basis to get my heart pumping. At my best, I walked to the gym in 25-degree weather - in shorts, because I'm not smart - and I ran several miles on the treadmill. I exercised even more when I had a gym in my apartment building. I felt great, and I never once questioned whether exercising was a worthwhile practice. It so obviously improved every facet of my life.

Then, a few years ago, I stopped. Maybe it was moving out of the building with the gym. Maybe work got busier. Maybe it was having a kid. Whatever the reason, my exercising habit dwindled and eventually disappeared outright. I could not find the time or - more importantly - the motivation to fit in a half-hour of exercise into my days.

As is true of all habits, not exercising became easier and more ingrained each day I did it. Not only was it easier physically to lay in bed rather than run on a treadmill, my brain became better and better at justifying my lack of exercise:

"I have no time - not in the morning, the afternoon, the evening, weekends, weekdays. It's too cold out. It's too cold in. My gym is too far away [my gym was a block away; I could see my apartment building from the treadmills]. I would definitely exercise at Equinox, but I can't afford to join. If I had a treadmill at home, I would run every day. I can't do exercise DVDs because it would annoy the people living below us. Exercising would take away time I could be spending with my wife and our new baby. What if my son ended up in therapy because daddy was too busy exercising to play with him? I can't risk it."

Even more insidiously, my lazy brain began implanting deeper ideas that would prevent me from exercising today, or tomorrow, or any day: "Does exercise really matter? I'm a cerebral guy - who cares what my body looks or feels like? Sure, exercise is great for Michael Phelps, but I don't need it. My life is just fine without it."

But it affected me. While I maintained a healthy weight through dieting, and I walked several miles each day as part of a normal life in New York City, I could still feel the lack of regular cardio exercise, the kind that really gets my heart pumping. I felt the lack of exercise in my chest. My body dragged. I was in lousy shape. Climbing a flight of stairs caused me to lose my breath. While singing songs to my baby son, I had to pause for breath between each verse. I even confessed to a friend that "I get winded while whistling."

In the back of my mind, I had the nagging notion that I was hurting myself by not exercising. But it was dwarfed by the impeccable, inarguable logic behind a sedentary lifestyle.

To the tiny extent that I did want to exercise, the idea of running a few miles seemed like torture. But of course, I couldn't do any less than that. I was going to exercise perfectly, or not at all.

I waited in vain for my old motivation to suddenly return, for the day when I'd wake up, realize how vital exercise was, jump out of bed, and run five miles with a smile on my face. But it never came.

A few months ago, I read Mini Habits; and everything Stephen said about willpower and motivation lined up with my own experience. He understood every dirty trick my brain had pulled to keep me from disrupting my lazy, comfortable, and deeply unhealthy equilibrium.

I decided to build the Mini Habit of exercising for 5 minutes per day. My Mini Habit would, at least initially, consist of running in place in our backyard if the weather was good, or in our laundry room if it wasn't. It felt absurd, like it would accomplish nothing, but it was an exercise commitment that flew under the radar of every excuse that my brain could come up with. My brain simply said, "Sure, whatever, Carl Lewis. Have fun with your 'exercise'. Maybe you'll qualify for the New York City Marathon over in the laundry room."

That night, I laced up my sneakers and headed to the laundry room. My brain didn't try to stop me. I huffed and puffed in place for five minutes. When my timer went off, I wheezed, "Oh, thank you, thank you" and, coursing with relief, I threw off my sneakers.

That was 85 nights ago, and I haven't missed a night of exercise since then. A few weeks ago, I felt comfortable enough to bump up my Mini Habit to ten minutes of exercise per night. A few days ago, I added 2 1/2 minutes of crunches after I run in place.

If any of this becomes too onerous, I'll shift back to five minutes per night until I'm comfortable exercising again. For now, though, it feels right; and every night of exercise makes the next night easier to accomplish, physically and mentally.

Eventually I hope to build back up to a half-hour of running, and not just running in place. But I know I'll get there; and I know that it will only happen if I continue to do something - however small - instead of nothing.

Even with only 5-10 minutes of cardio every night, I feel so much better. I breathe easier. I walk faster. I sing - and even whistle - without any detrimental effects.

Perhaps most importantly, and fully in line with the book's philosophy on exercise and willpower, exercising has slowly brought back my motivation to exercise. I'm remembering how good I feel when I'm a regular exerciser, the joy of resting, covered in sweat, after I've pushed myself to accomplish something physically difficult. I get excited picturing how my body will eventually look. I'm realizing - once again - how important regular exercise is to my physical, mental, and emotional health.

After 85 nights, I'm excited about this. Slowly, over several months, exercising has once again become a part of my identity. None of it happened magically overnight. It happened in sweaty five- and ten-minute mini-increments.

Mini Habits helped me improve a vital area of my life when nothing else worked. Thank you to Stephen for inventing such a fantastic concept. I hope that anyone who wants to make a similar change will give Mini Habits a try.

615 people found this helpful

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Melissa Mitchell

“Mini habits generate motivation”

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book had a great effect on me. I highly recommend it if you are one of those people who always says, “I want to work out at least x times a week. I want to write at least x amount per day. I want to eat healthier, read more, get better at piano, etc,” but it’s been ten years and you still ARE NOT that person. That’s me. And I’m still saying those things ten years later. If it didn’t happen in the last ten years, why will it happen in the next?

Hello “mini habits.”

Mini Habits are “laughably small” or “stupid small” versions of a bigger habit you would like to develop. The idea of developing small habits means you’re getting the hardest part out of the way: the decision making. Once you’re doing the action, you are much likelier to continue ding it. That’s the theory in a nutshell. You can get a much more expanded explanation with reasons in Mini Habits (the book).

Since starting this book, I’ve adapted several mini habits like: 1. Playing one song cover to cover on the piano (since practice 30 minutes always seemed like a mountain of a task) 2. Write 50 words a day (since 200 and even 2000 seemed overwhelming) 3. Read two pages a day (since read for one hour before bed feels daunting at the end of the day) and 4. Exercise or do five minutes of yoga

I am happy to say that so far after a few days, the method is working. I know, I know, a couple of days is nothing. It takes much longer to develop a habit. However, I have discovered that the minuteness of the habit makes it easy to start, and then I am often encouraged to keep going since I’ve already started.

This book is such a quick read, there’s no reason NOT to read it!

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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José E.

Excelente libro.

Reviewed in Mexico on October 31, 2021

Verified Purchase

La información contenida es clara y sin rodeos. Los ejercicios o técnica que propone el autor se pueden aplicar inmediatamente y se da una explicación del porque funcionan. Un pequeño que fomenta la acción consistente paso es mejor que un gran paso sin continuidad.

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Cliente Kindle

Libro di grande aiuto

Reviewed in Italy on August 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

Ho dato questa valutazione perché le strategie proposte dal libro mi hanno aiutato molto a crescere e creare delle abitudini importanti nella mia vita! Lo consiglio a chi è "pigro" o vuole raggiungere un obbiettivo ma trova difficoltà nel farlo.

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xcamilaxy

Boa proposta!

Reviewed in Brazil on December 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

A proposta do livro é criar o hábito e ponto final. E para criar o hábito não precisamos começar com nada grandioso. Se quer ler, comece com 2 páginas. 2 páginas é um número ridículo, na concepção do autor, e, portanto, impossível falharmos. Se quer exercitar-se, comece com 10 minutos. Provavelmente você fará mais que 2 páginas, mais que 10 minutos, mas a ideia é realmente criar o hábito! :) Recomendo!

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Life Changer

Reviewed in India on April 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

No other books about building a habit is more effective than this amazing book by Mr.Stephen..It has changed me,my perceptions about willpower, motivation.I believe after reading this book -motivation and willpower are not as tricky as they pronounced.But the key of buiding long lasting habit is to keep it STUPID-SMALL.Yes i have personally developed my mini habits in a matter of days that turned into weeka without ever failing.It really builds momentum in our lives .I highly recommwnd it for the extremely low willpowered,procaatrinator and the normal ordinary person to read it for yourself and see the changes effectively every single day only if you practise the methods enshrined .STUPID SMALL TO Remarkably Great and Greater.

3 people found this helpful

Ruski

I wish I had this book 20 years ago.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I don't often write reviews but I feel this book deserves one. I can only give it 5 stars but it deserves 10. I discovered this book through a reference in one of Tim Ferris's books. In the past I've tended to read self help books, tried hard to put the advice in action for a few weeks or months and then given up. This book however is changing my life and it seems effortless. Stephen gives you the science behind it all but most importantly, practical ways to implement what you are learning. Work has improved tremendously as has my personal life. Success begets success and I'm finding I want to learn and try new things now that I have a practical way to achieve them. You can apply these techniques to so many different areas in your life, like exercise, diet, study, learning new skills, relationships, money, etc etc etc. Once you have read this one l, recommend his next book on Imperfection. This is just as good and takes things a step further. I'm eagerly awaiting a third book (Stephen, I hope your 50 words a day is close to yielding the next one 😋). I gifted this book to my sister as I want it to help her like it's helping me. Im also very subtlety introducing some concepts to my little boy as he starts school as it will help him tremendously later in life. Buy this book, you will not regret it.

7 people found this helpful

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