Last year I became a morning person, learned a foreign language and read 5 times more books than I could have mastered before. At first glance, I put in a lot of effort to achieve these results. But in fact, I didn’t do anything supernatural and complicated.
These 4 principles helped me.
1. Do not rush into the pool with your head: do everything gradually
When I started cultivating myself, I made one big mistake. I always set a fairly high bar for myself: get out of bed no later than 6 am, read at least one book a week. And the difference between what I wanted to achieve and what I was able to achieve was so great that every day I was closer to giving up.
But then I discovered that progress comes from small victories. And I developed a strategy. It consisted of focusing on repeating a specific action every day - while trying to ignore how effective it would be. In other words, quantity comes first, and quality comes second.
This is where I started.
Reading: one page before bed
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At first, I read only one page before going to bed (it often happened that more, but if I could master only one, I already considered it an achievement). When this habit took root, I would set the timer and read for 15 minutes. I ended up reading for half an hour before bed and another half hour in the morning.
For comparison: in 2013 I read 7 books. In 2014 - 22. In 2015 - 33. And this is almost 5 times more than in 2013.
Learning a new language: one lesson every morning
At one time I studied French, but I was kind of superficial to it. When I decided that I wanted to improve my knowledge, I began to master one lesson on the Duolingo website during my morning coffee.
One lesson requires only 5 minutes, and the tasks are not difficult. Then I already wanted to study more - two, three, sometimes even four or five lessons, if I was in the mood. I did as much as I could, but one lesson is a must.
Now, according to Duo, I speak about 41% of French. And this is a huge achievement, if you think that at the very beginning I devoted 5 minutes a day to this language.
2. Focus on one thing
Almost the hardest thing for me is not to spray. I always have so many ambitious plans, so much enthusiasm, so much I would like to succeed. But every time I tried to instill in myself several habits at once, everything ended in failure. And the thing is that it is difficult for our brain to concentrate on several things at the same time.
Therefore, I had a new rule: only when I brought the skill to automatism, I could take on something new. For example, just getting used to reading before bedtime, I began to study French hard. And when it was easy to complete the French assignments, I focused on getting myself up early.
Sometimes it takes a long time for a skill to take hold. Most of all I have suffered with getting up at 6 in the morning. For four months (four whole months!) I tried to find the right approach for myself, tracked my progress and talked about my successes to my friends, whose help was simply invaluable.
Now I'm a morning person - I wake up early without any alarm clocks. It was not easy to achieve these results, but it was worth it.
In general, it is believed that developing a new habit takes plus or minus 66 days (i.e. about 2 months).
3. Remove obstacles: everything you need should be at hand
I noticed that it is much easier for me to cope with daily tasks when the things necessary to complete them are nearby. For example, for my morning coffee, I always took my phone with me - this is how I taught myself to regularly study French.
Or I found it much easier to get myself to read the page before bed when my book was on the bedside table.
One of my plans for 2016 is to play the piano more often. Now I sit down for him when I am in the mood, but this is not enough for there to be visible progress. However, I noticed that I was drawn to play when the piano was not far away. Now I put it in the living room next to the door that leads to the kitchen. Now I can play while I'm waiting for food to be prepared, or when I walk into the kitchen for an afternoon snack.
Back in 2016, I would like to do more sports. Again, I noticed that if I was wearing my workout uniform in the morning, then I had a desire to go for a run. Therefore, in the evening I need to prepare the clothes that I will put on when I wake up.
4. Build habits: let new ones be added to existing ones
An action performed on automatism should become a kind of trigger mechanism and induce to take on something new. For example, getting out of bed in the morning, the first thing I do is go to the kitchen and make coffee. While the coffee is being prepared, I start to French. My habit of brewing coffee, already developed over the years, is exactly what stimulates me to exercise. And when I'm going to go to bed, I immediately open the book: thus, the moment I climb onto the bed, my trigger mechanism goes off, and I remember what to read.
Now, acquiring new habits has become something of a hobby for me. And I am inspired by the very thought of how much more you can learn, moving in small steps.