Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results Kindle Edition

The author wrote in a clear, concise, and engaging style. His suggestions are easy to follow. The information is easy to digest while still maintaining an insightful depth. Each section flowed smoothly into the next concept. The author also included some great online resources and links.I started to apply the mini habits to some daily goals that I have been struggling with, and I haven't missed a day yet. The main key is making a habit "stupid small", in other words, the less willpower and less mental resistance that you have towards completing a habit, the easier you will keep doing it.I really like the author's writing style. The more that I read, the more motivated I became.If you fell stuck with developing or keeping habits and goals, this book is worth reading and applying the techniques.

Mini HabitsThe book Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise is based on the story of how the author discovered that mini habits work better than traditional big habits. For ten years the author tried many different personal development systems, to build significant daily habits that would help him achieve his fitness and writing goals, and had no success. One night in desperation he decided upon a mini habits - just one push-up a day. To his surprise this mini habit empowered him to do more and more push-ups and to ultimately develop fitness habits that helped him achieve his goals.His surprising results with mini habits inspired him to research why they worked so well in achieving major results. The author’s personal experiences with a motivational approach to achievement was that to be motivated to work on a goal, it had to be big enough to be exciting, like running five miles a day or writing 2000 words a day. The daily tasks required to achieve the goals took so much willpower to start that he never had the energy to get started, much less start a new habit. Without “motivation” he could not get anything done.Researchers have discovered that to be motivated to achieve a goal, which requires habit formation, the goal has to be big enough to get people excited. For many people just coming up with a big “exciting” goal was enough of an accomplishment. Having the goal was a reward enough and they no longer felt the need to actually accomplish it. Those who tried to accomplish a big goal which required developing new habits that took a lot of energy and willpower had a very negative experience and feeling of failure when the goal was not achieved. The result was a huge resistance to developing new habits and a negative experience every time forming new habits was attempted yet not accomplished.Establishing a mini-habit, on the other hand, does not require a lot willpower to start and since it is easy to do, it creates a regular positive experience by doing it each day. Even though the mini-habit is ridiculously small, it provides a positive sense of accomplishment and encouragement. It is important not to increase the mini-habit goal so that it remains easy to do. The mini-habit doesn’t require much energy to start so there is more energy to do the work.The author suggests taking at least a month to see if mini-habits will work for you. I tried the mini-goal the author had, to write 50 words a day on a book I have been working for a year about what I have learned about cancer that I think everyone should know. The first few weeks the mini-goal seemed to help a little, but now that I have been doing it for 6 weeks it seems to be helping a lot. It not only helped with writing the book, but it contributed to me focusing the content and scope of the book. Instead of trying to explain the historical models of cancer and how recent discoveries are finding them to be wrong, I am focusing on the stunning new discoveries and the success of non-toxic cancer treatments. Last week I wrote more in a day than I have since high school.I feel using mini-goals is helping me achieve my goals. If you want to try a new way to accomplish things try out mini-goals. I highly recommend this book - Five Stars.

I am on the last chapter of the book and I've already successfully implemented 3 mini habits into my life. I've also gifted it to a few friends. Easy to read. Short and sweet. It is a little repetitive, otherwise I would have given it a full five stars. Definitely recommend!

Today I did five pushups -- four more than I planned. I ran 17 minutes,16:30 more than I had initially intended. And now, as I type this, I am marching my way toward a goal of 50 words for the day.These aren't feats of valor in themselves, though the genius of these three micro-goals are the whisper-soft starts they offer. When all you have to do is drop and do one pushup, the horror of not completing your trifling goal for the day is far greater than doing what's required to meet it.The techniques -- and the even goals I chose for myself -- come from Mini Habits, yet another book in the sprawling self-help weedpatch. What sets Mini Habits apart, however, is that its author, Stephen Guise, wastes no time laying out a credible and actionable path to transforming sloth to industry without the extra baggage and pseudoscience of other works in the genre.Instead, Guise opens with a treatise on the value of willpower over motivation (motivation is a feeling and feelings inevitably change) and then goes on to cite to good effect various studies in ego depletion, habit formation, and subconscious mechanics. According to those studies, there are five principle things that deplete willpower: hypoglycemia, negative affect, effort, perceived difficulty, and subjective fatigue. Building on the studies, Guise points out levers for those categories, most of which center on his mini habit concept. What makes Guise's book an absolute gem, in fact, are the chapters he writes on getting down to business. Unlike The Power of Habit, which though replete with well-reported long-form journalism, is light on actionable information, Mini Habits allows -- or even demands -- I put its information to concrete use (313 words so far -- 263 more than I had required of myself). To minimize guesswork Guise's recommendations are nearly black and white and he proscribes them with caveats to maximize success. For example, he says to start with one and certainly no more than four mini-habits, because 100 percent success will enhance your self-efficacy.Self-efficacy, Guise points out, is where the gold of mini-habits lies. By completing a goal -- even one that seems crazy small -- you get a little jolt of personal power that can spill over to other areas of your life. I've completed three today (including the one sun salutation this morning with a Warrior II and Triangle tacked on) and I have to say I feel pretty nifty. The 450 words I've written so far, too, stand as an apology for this book.I only sat down to write because two sentences were all I was on the hook for, and lo, we have this review! If my results are anything like the typical reader's, mini habits are a solid tool for salting a few casual miracles into your routine. Guise's book is an excellent guide.