Ordinary Habits! Extraordinary Results!

Read 25 pages a day and you will end up reading 36 books in a year.

Write one page a day & you will be able to publish a book at the end of the year!

Walk for 5 Kms per day and it can lead to reducing 8 Kgs of your weight in a year (Caveat: control your diet – remove sugar and carbs).

Saving Rs. 100 per day means Rs 36,500 saved by the end of the year. If the same money is invested in a balanced advantage fund this savings will become Rs. 50,000 by the end of 3 years.

All the above data is amazing, isn’t it?

All these start from simple and ordinary habits which I call micro habits.

Micro habits are very ordinary habits and can be picked up very easily by anyone but the best part is that they can lead to extraordinary results.

• It’s about showing up every day.
• It’s about doing boring things regularly till it becomes a habit.

Human beings are slaves to habits. So how about becoming slaves to those habits which can help you grow both from the mind as well as from the pocket?

We look too far ahead and get disappointed thinking that the goal is too tough to achieve. 

If you weigh 100 Kgs and your target is to become 80 Kgs, it’s a tough road ahead but if you have a proper diet chart and give 30 minutes of your time in the mornings and evenings you can reach that goal within 24-30 months.

I find people hate reading books. I know it’s crazy because people who are reading this post must be having reading as a habit otherwise you wouldn’t have come this far but how about having a simple target of reading 2 pages per day? You can finish a 200-page book in 100 days which would easily translate to 4 books in a year. It’s a positive step, isn’t it? From 0 books the previous year to 4 books this year! 

Then bring in the power of 1% and have a slightly higher goal for the next year. 2 pages per day can now become 4 pages per day for the next year. This is how you improve. This is how you utilise the power of 1%. This is how you build up ordinary habits. This is how you end up with extraordinary results.

Think of an iceberg! People only see 10% but it’s the 90% that’s below the surface of the water that matters. People don’t see it. Success is also similar. People see the successful you but they don’t see the hard work that you do behind the scene. 

Hard work begins small and then you build on it. When you start it’s difficult. But soon you will get used to it.

The first book that you read would be tough to complete. Give yourself a prize when you finish it. Always enjoy small victories! 

Saving Rs. 100 per day doesn’t look like a big deal but if you think of Rs. 50,000 it definitely does. Now when you see that saving Rs. 100 per day and investing that money in a mutual fund can get you to Rs. 50,000 in 3 years, doesn’t that excite you? Now think, as the money grows, you in the second year save another Rs. 36,500 and then again in the third year and in actual you will have more than Rs. 1.3 lakhs by the end of three years. Cool isn’t it? I told you, people see only the tip of the iceberg. It’s the simple habits and doing it daily that makes you successful.

Then, why do people avoid these habits?

• It’s boring
• Think too far ahead
• Lack of purpose

Successful people do boring activities daily. This is how they build up their habits! They have a focused goal in front of them and they make sure that they won’t stop till they reach their goal. The funny part is that by the time they reach their goal they have already shifted their goalpost because goals are always aspirational. 

If you think too far ahead you will not reach your goal because you are bound to get disappointed since success doesn’t happen in a linear curve. You will have days when you are down but if you are focused on your goal you will get up every day to go for your goals.

Why I tell people to read books is that it’s never possible for anyone to learn everything alone. So it’s better to learn from the experience of others. Books teach you. The author’s experience should be understood and one needs to grasp the understanding and try to put that to good use. Remember reading just for the sake of reading will not help. You need to put that in use to gain the benefits. That’s why I advise reading slowly. 

I also advise people to write because of two reasons:

• You are unique and you have your own story. Share it because someone somewhere can learn from your experience. Don’t underestimate yourself.
• When you read something which leaves a mark, write it down. It helps you to remember.

There is another reason. By writing down the important points you get into the habit of writing. A 200-word LinkedIn post of your yesterday’s learning can easily be posted as 5 tweets the next day. It’s that simple.

We are lucky and we should be grateful for the same.

I see so many people who are struggling around me. I can’t help everyone but I try to help some. So if all of us help a few people around us, things will get better in our society. Always pay it forward. 

By gathering knowledge, by garnering wealth we might be able to help others. I keep saying there is no use in being an influencer if you can’t help others. 

Count the “thank you” not the money in your bank account.

You can achieve this stage by first building habits.

• Read more
• Write more
• Excercise more
• Save more and invest more.

But before “more” first start! It’s the first step that matters and then it’s all about the game of consistency.

We, humans, fail to turn up every day. Since you feel the activity is boring you won’t turn up every day or won’t want to turn up every day. But to be successful you will have to do boring activities daily.

Rome was not built in a day and you too won’t be successful overnight. But one day the tipping point will come but it will only come for those who believe in themselves – Who creates good habits and become the slave of such habits and who are relentless to achieve their small goals. I call these goals small because I want you to believe that they are easy to achieve. Reading 2 pages per day for one month is an easy goal to achieve. But by the end of the 100th day, you will become a slave of this habit. And if you can continue it for one year then you will not look back. You might look back but only in amazement of yourself because you will realise how far you have travelled and you will find that it’s a different you.

Did I ever think to write a book? Probably yes but I never got myself to put in the hard yards. Then I decided to write 1000 words per day. Believe me, most of the days I ended up writing close to 1500 to 2000 words. These include my LinkedIn posts and tweets. Then voila one day I realised my book has crossed 70,000 words. I was amazed at myself that I could write so much in 6 months. People who know me very closely will vouch that I didn’t have the patience of this magnitude to finish a book. I could do it and I believe anyone of you can do it too.

My weight loss journey is still a work in progress. It’s less than 6 months since I am into this regime and my wife told me the other day that you are now habituated to go for your morning walks come what may. I realised it’s true. My sleeping habits have changed. My waking habits have changed. And I am discovering a new me. You can do it too.

It’s the small simple micro habits that you need to focus on. 

You can do it. I know you can. Do you believe in yourself? What’s stopping you?

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