Do some rather than none

Commit to keeping the habit going

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to do some rather than none. Even if
you can't do your normal routines or meet your goals

(00:25):
for a day, doing a little something is often better
than nothing at all. You keep the habit and make
a little progress, which means there might be less to
make up later. So we have all been there. You
plan to go to the gym after work, but in

(00:48):
the work day with little energy, you are trying to
read through an immense book, but reading much of it
on a certain day seems daunting. You resolve to work
on your novel, but you are facing a creative block
or the day is rapidly getting away from you. We

(01:11):
are human. From years of studying people's habits and goals,
I am pretty sure that we often set way too
lofty expectations for what we can do on any given day.
These expectations then feel overwhelming in the moment, and we

(01:31):
give up on the hard days and then have trouble
getting back in better to keep expectations low. But even
if you haven't set low expectations on any given day,
it might help to lower them a bit. Do some
rather than none, and you maintain the habit while moving forward.

(01:58):
So if you are too tired to do a full workout,
but the gym is on the way home, tell yourself
you'll just stop there for five minutes. You will lift
that set of dumbbells once, or you will simply read
one page and that giant book you're attacking one page,

(02:21):
you don't have to write for an hour. You will
just write one sentence. These choices to do some rather
than none, do a few good things many times. Once
you have started, you will keep going. You are at

(02:41):
the gem, so it doesn't seem like a big deal
to move on to the leg press after those dumbbells
or something cool happens on that one page you are reading,
and you want to find out what happens next. But
even if you only do a little bit, you haven't
stopped the habit. You have made some progress, which is

(03:07):
less progress you will have to make in the future.
That is, one fewer pages to read or one less
sentence to write. It does add up. I think the
tendency to do none is a way to let ourselves
off the hook. We design our habits for our best days.

(03:28):
Instead of thinking through the logistics of how things will
work on bad days, doing none allows us to treat
bad days as total aberrations. Of course I couldn't go
to the gym given that stressful meeting. Of Course I
can't write anything in my novel if I just had
to take a kid to urgent care. But is that

(03:51):
true for many things? The answer is that you can
still do a little bit. Doing a little bit helps
diminish this all or nothing thinking that usually isn't helpful.
You aren't going to get many perfect days in life,

(04:12):
so figure out what you can do on the bad
days and make those things happen. It is still something,
and something is almost always better than nothing. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

(04:34):
the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,

(04:57):
then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com.
That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

(05:20):
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