hen people want to change, they typically try to do it “marathon style.”

What do I mean by this?

Well, they try to tackle something BIG.

Maybe it doesn’t even look that big from the outside.

Maybe it’s something like “eat healthier.”

Or “exercise regularly.”

What they fail to see is that there are a lot of moving parts in these changes.

Learning curves, uncertainties, mindsets, information, tools, time management considerations, etc.

No wonder it can seem both exciting AND daunting.

What’s terribly unsexy when it comes to change are the “little tweaks.”

Small habits, commitments, and guidelines that start to shape your behavior in subtle and manageable ways.

It’s something I experienced at the Zen monastery where I trained.

There, we literally had HUNDREDS of guidelines.

In the bathrooms alone, there were about twelve of them.

Guidelines about how to use the toilet, the shower, and the bathroom itself.

Keep the lid down and save a flush. Turn the water on, get wet, turn it off to lather up, and on to rinse. Make sure not to leave any personal belongings in the bathroom when you leave.

We had guidelines in the kitchen, the meditation hall, the dining hall, the workshop room, the dorms, the hermitages, the outhouses, etc.

When you first arrive on the property, you get very present with the fact that the way you live your life is extremely unconscious.

The guidelines made living mindfully a requirement.

How can this help you?

If you want to build your habit-changing muscles, my encouragement would be to start with something you want to be mindful of.

Perhaps it’s pushing in the chair you sit in every day when you leave it.
Or washing every dish after you’ve finished eating.
Or keeping your water bottle to your right at 2 o’clock.
Or always carrying a small notepad and pen to take random notes.

It really doesn’t matter what you pick or what you do.

All that matters is that you track how you’re doing with it.

In the beginning, that may require you to set alarms periodically so you can check to see (because “forgetting” is a popular way the voices of ego sabotage our efforts).

You’ll also need to check for voices that are tired of being inconvenienced by your new habit. They’ll say, “this is stupid,” or “who’s got time for this?” Or “what’s the point?”

Anything to get you to quit.

Which isn’t a problem.

This is EXACTLY why you’re doing this.

To see HOW resistance shows up to get in the way of you doing ANYTHING.

Because the way they interfere with you making a small tweak is how they’ll interfere with you making a BIG change.

And the way you support yourself with making a small tweak is how you’ll support yourself with making a BIG change.

You wouldn’t build a house on quicksand.

And you wouldn’t build a beautiful life on slipshod habits and behaviors.