We all know the power of habits. But most are still likely underestimating the complete impact of small habits, whether they are good or bad, on one’s overall accomplishments and ultimately well-being. The reason? The many ripple effects that even simple behaviors can have into other parts of our lives. This article will explore those, why we tend to oversee them, and hopefully give you some added motivation to eliminate poor and establish good habits in your own life.
What are the ripple effects?
When considering the effect of any given action, most will focus on the direct cause. Ate some junk food? Made a habit of eating another candy bar during the day? You’ll probably only see it as costing you an additional $1-2 and adding an additional 250 calories to the day. Added another subscription to a streaming service to add another TV series to your agenda? You may only think of it in terms of it perhaps costing another $10-15 a month and consuming another hour a day. Likewise with positive habits, running for 15-30 minutes is often evaluated as another calory burn for the day, and for contributing to better cardiovascular health.
However, what we typically fail to account for is how the effects of these actions spill over in other parts of our lives that are seemingly unrelated. The habit of eating more sugar will contribute to more peaks and valleys in your energy levels, thus likely having negative effects on your mood or performance at different parts of the day. The likely resulting accumulation of weight may not seem significant at first, but later will also have similar negative impacts on other parts of your life through reduced self-esteem, ability to do sports activities you may enjoy, make you less attractive, and have an increased risk of various illnesses.
Similarly, simple and seemingly irrelevant positive habits can have significant ripple effects on other parts of your life over time. A good example is a habit such as walking 15-30 minutes in the early morning just after waking up each day. Doing so will have a significant impact on your sleep, as described in an earlier article the importance of early daylight, as well as securing at least some physical activity for the day. One might look at this simple habit as just another bullet point amongst many for how to improve sleep, or just a few steps but the effects, especially over time, goes well beyond that. Good sleep has an impact on several things, from weight to mood and productivity. Establishing good habits for better sleep will likely end up increasing your net worth, improving your job career, making you feel better during the day, and improving your relationships with others. And how much value and further benefits will all of that, in turn, provide you with?
It is therefore key to understand that both good and bad habits, which are established by even the smallest things that we choose to do, will have significant long-term effects. So why don’t we go after them more relentlessly?
Short term bias
Most of us are affected by a short-term bias in almost all that we do. Whether it is our perception of the crypto or stock market, our view of ourselves and how our lives are going, or indeed the impacts of the actions that we make. In the case of the markets, it's easy to be too heavily influenced by the latest news or price actions. That’s one reason why people buy high and sell low, they make decisions meant to last for years based on the picture they may have seen in the past days or weeks. When it comes to our lives, we may have several things going on to be grateful for, have a nice education, have a good network of friends, etc. Yet, it may only take a few weeks of things going south before one may start to feel that life is bad, become ashamed, or maybe even depressed. We tend to give too much weight to whatever we’ve experienced most recently. After all, that’s what we have fresh in mind occupying our thoughts. But that doesn’t make it true.
Likewise, for actions that we make with small habits, it’s easy to judge their impact by the effects they have had in close memory. Eating those extra candy bars didn’t make you fat in a week. Nor did watching one season of a new TV show stomp the progress you were making in your career. However, The long-term effects are what matters, and they are far more significant. Especially when taking the ripple effect into account. It may take 5 years to realize how a slight change in eating habits has accumulated to have a significant impact on health, and how that, in turn, has been the cause for several other changes in one's life for better or worse.
So forget the past week, and ignore the short-term discomfort of imposing a change in habit nor feel discouraged if it doesn’t provide visible short-term results. Instead, define the ultimate goal you’ll want to reach, and describe the small things that a person most likely to reach those goals would be most likely to do on a daily basis. Then start by doing those things!
Start by identifying the simplest change you can make
We all likely have things we can do better. Whether it is getting more sleep, getting more daylight exposure and fresh air, eating slightly healthier, exercising a bit more, etc. A trap that many people fall into is spending too much time looking up all the most ideal solutions to all their current imperfections and while likely learning a lot and feeling productive, end up doing very little. Instead, one is better off simply starting with something small as I’ve written before arguing how taking action is the real source of motivation in The lesson about motivation I wish I learned many years ago: “start by doing!”.
But where should we start? Here’s a simple trick that I like to use when needing to make priorities in life. I use it whether it is to decide what task I should handle next at work, or what change I should make in my life next.
Have a 2-axis chart either on your PC, on a board, or just on a sheet of paper. Let one axis describe the time or effort needed to do something, and then the other describes how important it is or how impactful it will be. Prioritize things that are quick do to or have a short deadline if we’re talking about work, that is the most important. Applying this to habits worth adding or removing, you should prioritize the things that you can get done right away with low effort, that have some benefit, even if it’s only a small one.
Understanding that it takes about a month for a new change in habits to stick focusing on getting a few new changes implemented at a time tends to work the best.
My sleeping habits have been a mess for a long time. Over a month ago, I've decided that enough was enough and bought a calendar, pinned it on a wall, and decided that I'd have to wake up before 8 every day no matter what (I know it seems like nothing for most people, but it was challenging at first for me, one of the caveat of being able to work when I want and being a night owl =p). After waking up, I just put a checkmark and the calendar.
A month in, I'm falling asleep and at a regular time, I have way more motivation to follow my exercising routine, I am more focused and motivated in my work as well.
So I couldn't agree more, sometimes a little change can have a huge effect.
I could have copy-pasted this comment as an outro message as it's pretty much the exact same situation and experience I had one year ago when i decided to turn things around.
I wasn't even aware of how bad it was until after I had spent way too long trying to figure out why I was always experiencing constant fatigue. The number of hours is one thing, but the quality is just as important. And it gets ruined by bad habits such as looking at screens to late, having too much caffeine (even if one stops at 16:00), and of course: not having a set rhythm.
After taking a full 180 and designing my day from start to end around optimizing energy levels, I feel as if I have gained my life back and the motivation and mental clarity I had 10 years ago. (I summed up everything I now do in an article 2 weeks ago The complete step by step guide to better and deeper sleep).
Another fun thing I noticed is that while I had always believed that I was a night own myself, I also understood that I had never actually tried to get up early consistently and thus never tried to have a morning rythm. (Surprisingly, it takes as much as 5 weeks for our minds to fully adjust to a new rhythm). So considering that I hadn't been doing a steady rhythm for decades, I would have never been able to really tell!
Very grateful for the change I've made. And can't promote them enough. I find that doing a blog post weekly on the best life-style change and hacks I've found helps reinforcing my own beliefs and persistency with them as well.
Thanks for your comment, it adds an extra bit of motivation to see it worked out for you after a year!
I totally agree about the bad sleeping habits, since I've started last month, I've cut out screens from the bedroom, and even if I want to read a book before bed, I do it in the living room. I can now fall asleep within a few minutes when it used to take me a few hours.
I'll take a look at your other article! And perhaps try to occasionally blog about it since it seemed to help you stay on track.
Cheers!
PS: Have you read "The Power of Habits" by Charles Duhigg ? It tackles habits from a scientific point of view and really helped me getting started.
Most behavioural changes requires periodic reviews. First to foster awareness of one's real actions, as even though we feel like we've learned and understood what we ought to do, that doesn't mean we're really doing it. And second to reinforce belief in why we're doing it, as our rational selves who posess the understanding of what and how to do something is unfortunately not the ultimate driver of behavioural. So keeping that emotional comnection and conviction to the why is essential. Hence why so many people recommend journaling of one sort or another. I just figured that since I always struggled to find the motivation to journal for myself, doing it on Hive provided that extra motivation. Win-Win!
I have The Power of Habit book well placed visibly on my shelf to remind myself of it😉 (one reason why I still enjoy physical books is the ability to use them as decoration in places where they can provide me with regular reminders of the most important take-always that I got from reading them!). I read through all those books back in 2016 from "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek, "Simple Rules : How to Thrive in a Complex World", The Power of Habit, and a few others.
Simple rules is probably the book I would recommend the most. Its essence is something I have adopted not only into my personal life, but also into how I work and how I treat my money.
As for sleep, you're absolutely right that getting away from screens before sleeping (or ideally removing them from your bedroom entirely), as well as making it a place for sleep only are both great components of a good sleep strategy. Those are also o hei my list in that post, and things that helped me too go from needing 40m-1h to fall asleep to doing it in 5-15m. My best hack here has been to insist that the last hour of the day is meant to set myself up for success the day after. And instead of using my brain on things that requires problem-soling, I'll instead prep whatever will help me save time, be more productive, and face less barriers doing what I want to the next day. Could include tidying up the apartment a bit so that it has less distractions, pack my gym bag so that it is ready to be grabbed up and go when I want to hit the gym, write a short list of things to do, meal-prep if I want, etc. Anything that is helpful but doesnt require a screen.:)
I'll look forward to a post from you if you decide to sum up your new habits, hacks or experiences!
It would be really helpful to get good night sleep. What I am experiencing, if we reduce our screen time on bed, we can get some extra hours of sleep.
You should try to completely avoid screens on bed, you need to help your brain associate your bed with sleeping.
I really liked your writing, in us is the power to decide to improve every day and remove from our lives those habits that harm our health and emotions, although it is not easy, but starting with small changes, we can achieve great things. Your article reminded me of Tony Robbins' book, "Awaken the Giant in You." it is wonderful.
We are the things that we do each day, not the things we say we'll do once in a while:)
One of my favourite stats is the cost of a daily take out Starbucks - over 40 years, that's around one year's salary.
So which would you rather do - go to Starbuck's once a day for your coffee for 40 years or buy a thermal mug and brew your own at home before heading out and retire a year early.
Once you add in compound interest it's more like 18 months earlier.
I refuse to pay for coffee outside unless its to also meet up with a friend and thus use the cafe for its hospitalization rather than its overpriced product.
That said, I don't want to know the math for the alternative cost of my purchase of an overly expensive coffee machine (~$1250). 🤣 Makes great coffee though!
But on a serious note, most people have 5-10 Starbucks-equivalent spending habits that in aggregated set them back a full decade.. Again: it is the small things that tend to become the big things.
Going into a particular thing and expecting the result to be fast and is very bad, at times we need to pull ourselves together and think of time suitable to take action, just as you have said, at times we incur loss because we could not wait for the time needed to reach out peak.
Yup. So many quit because they experience great initial difficulty and effort in creating change that seemingly give very little result, ignoring the fact that as it become habit, both the effort goes down and the impact goes up.
Really true🥰
Changing habits can be really challenging, but if you want to change anything in your life it is really important - and most of the time also really rewarding.
Connecting habits has proven successful to me. So if I want to start something new, e.g. do 20 push-ups a day, I am just adding it to an already exisiting routine. A voilà, it makes it a lot easier to start with it.
But it can be hard to break a habit, if you don't exchange it for another one, especially if it is something pleasing.
Cheers,
@andy-plays
Indeed it helps a lot to "bundle" things as you say. Especially if things can be ties to an already existing goal for which there's already a lot of motivation and determination built up👌
Yeah, that is really a helpful way :-)
If your motivation is high enough, than you can make most things work - so if you really want to achieve your goal, it probably can be done!
Cheers,
@andy-plays
Change is hard and slow. Bad habits are stubborn and take years/decades to form and in turn, inform.
That said, I do believe that there are certain transformative moments —that might be triggered by urgency, desperation or great longing — when we reach a dead end in our lives & take a Leap.
Here is a quote by Kafka (from his novel The Trial) that articulates this slippery truth:
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
Of course, this applies to nations as well as individuals, when enough becomes too much & one’s old way of living becomes impossible — hence, (r)Evolution!
I love it when suh quotes have external validity and can be applied more broadly than intended. Fundamental truths have a tendency to work like that:).
And it's certainly true that change often requires a disaster in order to happen. Never let go of a good crisis as they say.
I agree with what you say about 'fundamental truths'. In art, the personal is universal. First I hear of that saying: Never let go of a good crisis. Unlikely, to forget it anytime, soon... Good to have you back, active, on Hive and wishing you a rewarding week ahead :)
I personally feel bettering yourself each day is admirable. I do it myself and understand I'm not perfect, I'll make mistakes, I could have handled that better. Every day is a progression of improvement not only to myself but those around me I interact with. A small kind gesture can go a very long day. The world needs more good in it and what's really crazy is you'll feel pretty dang awesome yourself once you start doing it.
There is a fine balance between strong discipline that help set yourself up for long term success, and obsessions that make you forget to also enjoy life.
It is the small things done consistently that are the big things. The key is to identify what future goals really means something to you, and thus what daily habits and actions are neccessary to get there.
Walking is really a good habit for our health balanced. You have rightly said that
Thank you for sharing this kind of knowledge.
Thank you for reading and commenting:)
Welcome!😎
I like your usage of the axis chart. Very easy to understand and can be easily applicable.. Thanks for sharing
Glad that it could be of help!
a benefit, even if it is minimal, is good to add and if it is with little effort, the important thing is to add and continue to add
That is really true. The little steps can bring big changes!
Continuous adherence to good habits, even the small ones, are a lot like saving in the stock market. Small efforts over time become big positive results.
Hopefully, understanding this will help is do what seems difficult and irrelevant short term, but is required for long term success.
from there success begins with small results that will come later with many more successes.
Thank you for sharing!
It's great your post are trending even though you have trouble with English.
You may want to practice reading a bit more sophisticated English books then and not just cartoons if you have trouble understanding my writing 🙂
Thanks, I'll try that! Would it fix the grammar in your headline?
Great article, helped me a lot, I always have the urge to be the best at something before even trying, spend hours learning about it just to realize I spent hours looking at a screen instead of just doing it, will also try to walk in the morning to clear my mind a bit.