The #1 Reason Your Habits Never Stick

You know how it goes:

You decide to build a habit. You’re motivated. You are ready to change your life for good.

You’ve got this.

You set up the right environment. You set triggers and rewards. You are determined to make this attempt the one that works.

And it is!

For a week, that is.

You write that post or run that mile or work on your side hustle every day that first week.

Then…

The next week, you do it Monday, but forget to on Tuesday. On Wednesday, you slack off a bit, but Thursday, you’re back on track. Friday doesn’t go as planned….

The third week, you succumb to the fact that this habit isn’t working out. Your motivation fades. You decide to try again sometime in the future when you’re more ‘ready’.

It’s the habit building cycle you go through every time you introduce change to your everyday routine.

[easy-tweet tweet=”You want to be more successful, happier, and live the life of your dreams, but you can’t seem to build the habits that will make that a reality.” user=”shutupachieve”]

Everyone on Twitter makes habit building seem so easy—where did you go wrong?

They say to be happy, don’t have expectations.

[easy-tweet tweet=”If you don’t expect anything, you will never be disappointed. When it comes to habit building, it is our expectations that hold us back.” user=”shutupachieve” url=”https://shutupandachieve.com/habits-never-stick” template=”qlite”]

Let me explain:

You set your habit with the intention to do it every day for the rest of your life. You know you can—it’s not that hard after all.

But you don’t.

In a perfect world, you could build every habit you set your mind to. We don’t live in a perfect world, though.

Sometimes, you’re tired. Sometimes, you forget. Sometimes, you really, really don’t feel like it.

I’d tell you to not make excuses, but hey, it happens to the best of us.

[easy-tweet tweet=”The problem isn’t in the excuses we make. The problem is we make these excuses, then tell ourselves we are failures and give up.” user=”shutupachieve”]

The reason your habits never stick is because you allow these mess-ups to discourage you.

The path to integrating a new habit in your life isn’t a straight line. You go up, up, and up, and then slack off and fall down. You can let that setback keep you down, or you can start climbing again. And again. And again, until your habit sticks for good.

The Two-Day Rule

Matt D’Avella, a productivity, minimalism, and habits Youtuber with over 3 million subscribers uses the two-day rule to stay consistent with his habits. He developed this rule to get serious about his goal of becoming fit and build the habit of working out.

The rule is simple:

You are not allowed to take two days in a row off your habit. You can skip one day for whatever excuse you have, but that next day, you better show up.

With this rule, he could take multiple days off per week while still making progress toward his goal every other day.

A huge obstacle to building a new habit is discouragement. You try and slack off and then feel bad about yourself.

You can’t expect yourself to change in a day. You won’t go from zero to one hundred overnight. The key is to keep showing up. There will be days when you make excuses, procrastinate, and never get to doing that habit, but show up the next.

Don’t let a few days of inactivity put you off. Fall seven times, get up eight.

Get It Now & Start Building Habits That Stick!

Building a new habit is challenging. It takes motivation, discipline, and consistency.

You can make yourself do your habit for a week, then you skip one day, then two, and before you know it it’s been a few weeks before you’ve last put in the work.

What you do when you catch yourself slacking off determines whether your habit will stick.

Will you see it as a sign that you aren’t up to the challenge? Or will you use that as an awakening call to get back on track?