A few years ago I read a post about self improvement where someone wrote about the concept of no-zero-days to form habits. It basically means you just need to do something meaningful every day to make it count, even if it’s something very small. Read one page in a book - no zero day, do 10k steps - no zero day…
Of all the things I read and tried in the past to change my behavior, get more active, learn new things etc, this by far worked the best for me and basically changed my life.
Right now I have 18 different habits I’m tracking on my phone. Things like reading, learning Spanish, doing chores, solving a puzzle on lichess, taking a cold shower, learning something about world affairs/history, taking care of my finances, meditating etc…
I don’t need to do all of them, one is enough. But because they require so little effort I quickly started to do more and developed habits I don’t need to force myself to do.
Now I have a 1500+ day streak on Duolingo and do 2-5 minutes of Spanish lessons every day. For more than 4 freaking years. This eventually ended up in visiting a language school in Spain last summer. One of my best vacations ever.
I read almost daily and found interest in new genres. I get enough exercise at least a few times a week. I educated myself about finances and now I don’t live paycheck to paycheck, paid off my debt and started to save something.
I later read about this concept in the book Atomic Habits and found variations of it in songs like Little Acorns by the White Stripes. In the end it’s about breaking things up into small, easy pieces so you don’t get overwhelmed or give up before you even start.
If anyone asks me what I swear by it’s this. It’s like magic.