Two-minute rule

Have you ever tried to start a new habit? But you find yourself procrastinating and not moving through with it?

I know I’ve been there. 

What I am sharing with you tonight is not something that I came up with, it’s something I read last night in a book entitled: Atomic Habits. 

James Clear, (the author) writes of one of the most famous dancers of all time...Twyla Tharp. Twyla said that she begins every day of her life with a ritual. She wakes up at 5:30 A.M., puts on her workout clothes and walks outside to hail a taxi. When she gets in the Taxi she tells the driver to take her to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where she works out for two hours. 

Twyla writes: “The ritual is not the stretching and weighty training that I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.” 

“It’s a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it - makes it repeatable, easy to do. It reduces the chance that I would skip it or do it differently. It is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about.”

How awesome is that?? It’s not the workout that is the habit but the action that she takes in order to get to the gym every day. I know when I try to make new habits I often try way to hard at first and oftentimes I don’t follow through with it.

When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. You’ll find that every habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version.

“Read before bed every night” becomes “Read one page.”

“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”

“Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”

“Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”

“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.” 

What you will start to train yourself to do, is that by doing these things over and over again you are going to discover that you mine as well make the most of it right? If it’s something you do over and over again, you might as well do the things that you set out to do. That is where it becomes natural.

If I read one page every night...I will want to read a chapter...then I will want to finish the book...then start another...

What we should really focus on is finding is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path. 

Putting in your running shoes becomes walking ten minutes...then walking ten thousand steps...then running a 5k...then running a marathon.

The point is to master the habit of showing up. 

I would encourage you all that whenever you are struggling to stick with a habit, you can employ the two-minute rule. It’s a simple way to make your habits easy.