Mini Habits - Stephen Guise

Have you ever had the feeling that your goals often seem far from fulfilling or even impossible to achieve? If the answer is 'yes' then this summary of the book "Mini Habits" is made for you!

This feeling overwhelms our motivation causing us to give up our dreams and goals during life. After all, if we don't believe it, there's no reason to move on, is it?

Well, Stephen Guise shows us that ignorance about how our brains work may be resulting in the wrong and nonfunctional strategies.

Want to know how? So get ready to reshape your strategies and realize

your goals by reading this summary!

The book "Mini Habits"

"Mini Habits" (2013) features simple, easy-to-maintain daily habits that gradually move you toward achieving your goals.

In this work, in 145 pages divided into 7 parts, Stephen Guise introduces you to the role of motivation and willpower, through small gestures that bring you out of inertia.

The book was considered the number one self-help in the US, Canada, and South Korea.

Who is Stephen Guise?

Stephen Guise is author, researcher and founder of Deep Existence. He graduated in finance in 2010 and specializes in habit formation and is the author of the number one self-help books in the US, Canada and South Korea.

Who should read this book?

People who believe they are unable or even guilty for failing to bring about lasting change in their lives.

Procrastinators, fearful and lazy can also enjoy this text.

Which are the key points of the book?

• Habits aim to automate the brain. Healthy habits make daily tasks much simpler;
• Mini habits are shortened versions of big habits that allow us to get out of inertia;
• Knowing how to adopt the right strategy and understanding the role of motivation in this process avoids the frustration and consequent abandonment of their goals;
• By understanding how the brain works, you make it work for your goals.

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What are mini habits?

According to Stephen Guise, doing little every day is infinitely better than doing too much just a few days, because daily actions become habits acquired and useful for life. When we acquire healthy habits in crucial areas of our lives, we are likely to be engaged in others as well.

How the brain work?

According to Stephen, habits automate our brain (and he loves it). This explains why when we develop healthy habits everything gets easier.

In this part of "Mini Habits", the author divides the brain into two parts: the conscious and the unconscious part. It explains how brain functioning acts on our behaviors.

The conscious part, composed of the prefrontal cortex, is how the brain deals with life situations, demands effort and energy but is important for administering automatisms and intervening when necessary.

The unconscious part, composed of the base nuclei, is effective, agile, detect patterns, and is responsible for the formation of habits. After all, if we had to weigh our decisions every moment, it would be extremely exhausting.

Finally, the author states that willpower and motivation are necessary elements only until habits have not been formed.

Motivation versus Willpower

Many people spend a lifetime trying to motivate themselves to do something and become frustrated because they see it as a strategy rather than as a bonus.

Adopting motivation as the main strategy for forming a habit is not the best alternative, as there are countless factors that affect motivation and all that the essence is emotionally based. This makes you vulnerable to failure.

The lower the motivation, the greater willpower required to maintain the desired behavior for a long time. Consequently, it becomes unlikely to form such a habit.

The author states that lack of motivation after a while is both natural and positive, as it is a sign that behavioral command is being transferred to the core, making them more automated and reliable.

Willpower, unlike motivation, is reliable, can be strengthened, and like habits fit into schedules.

However, there are five causes of willpower exhaustion: effort, perceived difficulty, negative affect, subjective fatigue, and blood glucose index, and if overcome, we achieve success.

The Mini Habits Strategy

Forcing yourself to do one to four "ridiculously small" strategic actions each day gives you the feeling that willpower is unlimited, which allows you to perform many extra tasks.

In this part of "Mini Habits", Stephen Guise explains how to overcome each of the five obstacles of willpower, all overcome through mini habits, as taking the first step reduces the initial sense of overload, wear, and channeling the energy of form. as effective as possible.

Stephen Guise explains that the brain is resistant to change. This resistance focuses on two main moments: resistance before action and resistance to doing more.

Resistance before action is solved when we draw a very easy first action as we move toward our goals by lowering internal resistance.

Resistance to doing more is one that maybe after the first step, usually, the first step is enough to break it, but if this is not the case, take "one more first step" and it will be easily broken.

The Difference of Mini Habits

The brain resists big changes, mini habits just ask you to start and from there, everything flows naturally and with the lowest possible energy expenditure.

In this part, Stephen cites characteristics of mini habits that make them different when compared to other self-help books. These are the characteristics:

• There is no deadline for consolidation, they are shown to have become a habit through everyday behavioral signals;
• Self-efficacy generating machine, it is yourself proving to yourself that you are capable, that success is daily and therefore the desire to surpass the desired goal is enormous;
• Presents a light and also rigorous path, with the major difference that the requirements are easy to enforce, making it difficult to neglect;
• Links concrete goals (goals themselves), such as flexing, with abstract goals, such as happiness. The ability to succeed in mini habits makes you happy to have accomplished your daily goal;
• They destroy fear and all that surrounds you, as the first step makes you experience what was feared, proving to yourself that it was not so difficult;
• Pay more attention to your goals, because everything you do every day makes you pay more attention to it. In addition, it gives you willpower bonuses, because repetition is the ideal exercise for willpower.

Eight Small Steps to Big Changes

Stephen teaches through 8 parts how to apply the mini habits strategy to your daily practice.

Write down on a paper the habits you want to acquire in your life, surely the most important ones pop out of your mind!

Step 1

2 to 3 habits are ideal for starting step 1. The author gives you 3 plans to follow, choose the one that best suits your reality:

Flexible one week plan (recommended)

• Choose one habit and apply the mini habit methodology to it;
• The execution of the mini habit should take a maximum of 10 minutes to complete;
• It must be feasible to apply even on extremely exhausting days;
• At the end of the 7 days, evaluate how the proposed mini habits went and make a firm decision about future plans.

Single mini plane

• Deposit all your concentration on 1 single goal;
• High chances of success;
• Suitable for those who have 1 goal more important than anything at the moment.

Multiple mini planes

• Beginners who want to try more than 1 habit right away;
• The number of mini habits is determined by the degree of individual difficulty in achieving the goals;
• Achieve 100% success in goals, no less.

An important tip is: make your mini habits ridiculously small and if you are still resisting them, reduce them more and more.

Example: If your mini habit is to drink 1 glass of water a day and you still resist, set the goal of filling the glass with water or even taking the glass. Accept the mini requirement as a complete goal, and you will succeed daily in reaching your goals.

Before following, make sure you have completed step 1:

• Choose one of the 3 plans;
• Divide ridiculously small mini habits;
• Annotate everything on one sheet.

Step 2

• Ask yourself why you want to acquire the chosen habits;
• Get to the heart of the question, ask yourself more than once;
• Countless should be the answers, choose the most relevant ones.

Step 3

• Determine if you will accomplish your mini habits by timeframe (determine a time of day to meet your daily goals) or whether you will accomplish your activity by milestone (stipulate that you reach 30 minutes before lunch or 30 minutes after lunch). breakfast for example);
• Choose the milestone that fits your daily schedule and run it without fail.

Step 4

Celebrate small achievements! They validate the strategy adopted and with that, you are inspired to be increasingly successful.

Step 5

• Write down everything, including your successes before going to bed;
• Have a calendar or whiteboard visible so you can be reminded to constantly keep up with your mini habits;
• Be mindful of using apps, they may suggest not so mini habits and you may be disappointed to fail to do so.

Step 6

• Always think small, so we keep moving forward;
• Be patient and meet the minimum daily goal;
• Do as much as you can when you are very motivated but able to meet the minimum goal the next day.

Step 7

Do not create high expectations inhabits;

Success is meeting the minimum imposed.

Step 8

• Signs that you are on the right track to consolidate a habit: no resistance, thoughtless action, identification, no worry, normalization, and boredom;
• Do not give up mini habits before consolidating a habit;
• Always keep your focus on the mini, do not change your strategy.

Eight Rules of Mini Habits

1. Never, never cheat - don't try to put bigger goals "in secret";
2. Be happy with any progress - mini habits value small steps, the beginning of all, allows the action to come before motivation and achieve huge achievements;
3. Reward yourself often, especially after a mini habit - rewarding yourself creates a positive vicious cycle;
4. Maintain Serenity - Boost and conserve your claw to form new habits, overcome boredom, and keep in constant progress;
5. If you are feeling a lot of resistance, step back - if it is very difficult to perform a mini habit, reduce the task to the maximum;
6. Remember how easy it is - remembers how easy it is to accomplish that mini task and with that comes the extras once again;
7. Never think a step is too small - small steps build huge deeds. Always value them!
8. Devote more energy and ambition to extra repetitions, not higher requirements - It's the actions at the end that count, investing your energy in the action rather than the goal is the best choice.

Finally, apply mini habits to all walks of life and you will achieve achievements once thought unreachable!

More content on habits

In "The Power of Habit" Charles Duhigg makes it clear that while the process of habit change is simple to explain, it does not mean that it is easy to perform. It is not difficult to suggest that smoking, alcoholism and binge eating can be resolved effortlessly.

In "The Golden Book of Leadership" John C. Maxwell argues that we need to develop self-awareness to become true leaders. It will illuminate the habits and behaviors that lead us to overcome obstacles.

Finally, in "Focused Work" author Cal Newport argues that, in almost every profession, keeping work focused provides enormous benefits, including personal life. He then presents the four rules for accomplishing this work and then making them into habit.

So, how to cultivate mini habits?

• When having a habit you want to form, always break it into "ridiculously small" tasks;
• Understand in-depth what you are really looking for in your goals;
• Whenever you are stalling something, remember that it is very easy to accomplish the mini task outlined to achieve it;
• Create rewards and maintain the positive vicious cycle of always wanting more;
• Don't spend willpower creating bigger tasks, but doing smaller ones 90% of the time you will do more, much more than you intended.

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