Trying to build a habit? Ask a smaller question, ask a bigger question.
A quick tip to change the way you think about healthy habits
Here are a few things that billions of people are trying to figure out:
How to get more sleep
How to consistently eat vegetables
How to exercise as regularly as that annoying friend
But who cares about them? Think about one habit YOU are trying to build — something healthy, for work, for fun…anything you keep asking of yourself. Picture that habit.
Ask a Smaller Question
Let’s say you’ve been sleeping 5 hours a night, and not feeling great — work is in its busy season, your child is teething, and the heat is acting up.
But you hear it’s healthy to get 8 hours of sleep. So you sit yourself down, wag a finger in your face, and say “listen, ME! This is the week. I’m gonna get 8 hours of sleep a night, and you can’t stop me.”
…has that ever worked for you?
Instead, ask a smaller question. Ask yourself how you could get one more minute of sleep tonight. Or maybe even one minute is asking too much. How could you get exactly the same amount of sleep, but with a bit more quality? Maybe you could put work down one minute earlier tonight, make your bedroom one degree cooler, or slide one inch further from your snoring partner ;)
Ask a Bigger Question
On the flipside, what if you’re setting your sights too low?
For instance, I used to coach group classes at 5:30am. It was sooooo hard for me to get enough sleep. So I’d ask myself how I could get to sleep a few minutes earlier, whether to nap or drink coffee, or maybe even how I could get off the 5:30 shift. But what about this:
”What if I were to quit my job?”
That would solve the problem pretty quickly, huh? OF COURSE, it’s not always possible. There are plenty of issues that we can’t address by simply asking a big question and then snapping our fingers. But that’s not even the point. By asking the question, we get ourselves to think differently about the situation. And if you want to change a habit, seeing your situation differently is a great place to start.
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