A Resolution So Tiny It’s Impossible to Break It

In response to Coffee Challenge: Why I want to be a better me in 2022

Have you ever heard of “Quitter’s Day?”

As stats say, 80 percent of people will drop their New Year’s resolution before the second half of February. And according to Strava, a fitness platform with over 800 user-logged activities, the most probable date to quit is January 19. They call it “Quitters Day.”

Why do people give up on what they have resolved to do?

New Year’s resolutions grow from bad emotions.

They are based on what you don’t like about yourself and make you focus on negative feelings.

And when you break the resolution, your tiny inner self becomes frustrated and angry at you, and there you go: an inner conflict ready.

Does it mean you shouldn’t try to change?

You definitely should, but don’t focus so much on your goal. Instead, you need something that will change your code of behavior. You need to develop a habit.

Why are habits so important? As Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power Of Habit, explains:

When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks.

When you have developed a habit, you don’t need to use willpower any longer to stay on track.

What habit would you like to build to set you up for positive change?

For me, it’s writing.

In 2021 I still did more wanting than writing. I read advice on how to write well. I searched for platforms and opportunities. I tried some online courses.

But something held me back from real writing, from sharing my words and thoughts with the world.

Probably that was the fear of rejection and fear of failure.

But then, despite the fear, I published a few articles and nothing bad happened. I even earned some claps and got some followers.

Only the old, well-known inner voice rumbled that it’s useless. A waste of time and it’s not gonna work.

Seems it’s high time to ignore it.

Making a habit can be easy if you start small.

When you built a habit, what matters the most is consistency. Because when you stop, you lose momentum. The longer the break, the harder it is to get back on track and continue the habit.

As James Clear puts it:

If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection.

Recently I’ve read an article by @kgabeci that reminded me of a simple and promising method to build a habit: have only non-zero days.

The original idea comes from a 2013 Reddit comment that went viral. The concept became pretty popular and even a smartphone app was created on its basis.

So what are “non-zero” days?

When you have a goal and you don’t do a single thing towards it in a day, you have a zero day.

But one is always better than zero. If you read one page of a book, do one push-up, write one sentence, you have a non-zero day. And a consistent string of non-zero days sets you up for success.

Do you want to build a writing habit? One sentence will be your daily minimum to avoid non-zero days. When you write one sentence, maybe you’ll forget to stop and write three, ten sentences, or half an article. But if you write only one, you’ll also be ok. You’ll have a non-zero day.

One sentence can be a comment under somebody else’s article that will make the person’s day. It can be a story title that will attract hundreds of readers. Or it can be just a statement that will move your article in the right direction.

Anyway, it will be something that will keep you in progress.

So here’s my New Year’s resolution: no more zero days. I will build a writing habit by making as tiny steps as possible.

Are you with me?

I wish you a Happy New Year. And 365 non-zero days in 2022.