How do I make habits that stick?
I first heard this saying "Raise the Floor not the Bar" when reading the book Do Hard Things by Steve Magness. It really resonated with me, as it perfectly culminated the past few years of my life where I was searching to form healthy habits in my life. I read many books on habits and was implementing things in my life to make me more disciplined day to day. This thought of raising the floor not the bar is essentially what I had done in a few areas of my life. I actually have a daily checklist of 10 daily minimums that I aim to keep. My goal is in cumulative keeping them 90% of the time. So over a month of 30 days I have 300 daily minimums and can only miss 10. I am going to take you through one of these "floors" or daily minimums that I do and how it came to be. Morning workout.
Step 1 - Determine the floor
In determining the floor first you need the item in your life you would like to get better or create a daily habit. For me it was daily exercise. It took a lot of soul searching to come up with a routine that made sense. Usually I start off with a plan that includes lots of running, and 3 days of weight lifting. I keep it up for a couple of weeks and eventually quit because it is too much. So this idea of the floor, what I want to be able to do the rest of my life (I'm 47 now so I may be coming from a different place). My goals were to 1. be able to play golf and be an active walker, and 2. be able to get on the floor and play with grandkids one day if they come (not yet though!!!). So my floor started off to walk 1.5 miles every morning at 3.8 on my treadmill and do 3 sets of 10 shoulder taps, without using my knees to get on or off the ground. I chose this because it is something I could see myself doing daily, even if I am tired, hungover, have a cold, or just don't want to do it that day. It is simple and I felt that no matter what was going on aside from a broken leg I could do it.
Step 2 - Commit to the floor
You need to make a commitment to do the floor daily (or 90% of the time). I took 90% of the time because that is the lowest A in school. And we want to be A players. My decision was that I needed to do it first thing in the morning, because knowing myself as the day goes on and I get more and more beaten down, the less likely I am to workout. So it had to be first thing in the morning. Now I also had other goals to fit in before work, so I decided I needed to start at 5 am (also The 5AM Club is a great book by Robin Sharma). It would take 30 mins. Now my wife and I usually head up to bed at 10 pm every night, then watch an episode or 2 of a sitcom in bed as we fall asleep (well she falls asleep in 10 mins, I usually watch an episode or two, then turn off the tv). So 11 pm to 5 am is 6 hours of sleep. I did not think that was a long term solution only getting 6 hours of sleep every day. So I wanted to move our "bedtime" to 9 pm when we went up to bed. I asked my wife if she was ok with that, and she was totally fine (mostly because she usually falls asleep on the couch at 8:30 anyways). Btw, for married couples I highly recommend going to bed at the same time if possible but that is a different discussion! It was set our new bedtime was 9 pm and I could still watch tv for 1 hr and get 7 hours of sleep a night. Some nights like Fridays, if we don't have anything early in the morning on Saturday we will stay up later.
Step 3 - Track the floor
I heard the quote before "What does not get tracked it does not get done". I am not sure where I heard that, but it is so true! You need to devise a way to track your success. I think of it as a reward for doing what you want. For me, in this case it is a calendar hanging on the wall next to the treadmill with a black sharpie hanging from it. After my morning workout, I put a big X on the day and a number which is the number of days in a row I have done my workout (my current number is 18 this morning).
Step 4 - Grind
I set my floor and committed to it not thinking weeks or months but years! I was thinking when I am 60 I should still be doing this. And I was ok if it was my current plan. Would I see benefits right away, probably not. Would I lose weight, no way. But the positive habit would work its way into my life and make me feel accomplished every morning. What a way to start off the day on a positive note. Even if I did not see anything, I was increasing my prospects of being able to be fit enough to play with grandkids when I was older, and that was my goal! Remember, this is not meant for you to become a body builder right away, it is meant for you to stick to the basic minimum. Please remember this when determining the floor!
Step 5 - Raise the Floor!
To get to step 5 it should be really well thought out and gradual. I don't think I made a change for the first year. And don't pressure yourself to change. If you are feeling good one day, then do more! But be careful, don't do anything extra that will make it hard to do the floor the next day. Like in my case squatting a bunch of weight will make it tough to walk the next day due to soreness (which is no problem because I hate squats). But on days you don't feel like doing anything only do the floor. I also took the idea that I would think about it for a month before I changed the floor. And make changes to the floor in small increments. Don't go from walking 1.5 miles to 3 miles. Start with 1.5 to 1.75 or 2 miles. Then maybe in a few months change the speed to go up .2 mph. This is long term thinking remember, this is just the floor. If you want to do some weight exercises after, do them! But don't make them part of the floor yet.
I started this workout floor about 2.5 years ago. As I said, I was walking 1.5 miles at 3.8 mph and doing 3 sets of 10 shoulder taps, without using my knees to get on or off the ground. Present day this is my current floor: Walk 2 miles at 4 mph and 2% incline while jumping off after each quarter mile and alternating the following: 2 back stretches which take about 40 seconds or 17 shoulder taps followed by 17 good pushups. I alternate those after each quarter mile for 1.5 miles, then just walk the rest. I have slowly worked up to where I am, and I don't see too many changes in the near future, but I am committed to keeping the floor daily.
What is a floor you can commit to in order to improve your financial life? Don't pay ATM fees? Sleep on it before buying an item? Only eat takeout or dine in once a week?
