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In his book the happiness advantage happiness researcher Shana core

discusses how he wanted to make practicing guitar a daily habit

however he encountered a problem one that plagues everyone he couldn't

motivate himself to practice no matter how much he tried to motivate himself

his guitar remained in his cupboard with the guitars is a few steps away Shawn

still couldn't push himself to pick up the instrument so why was he so hesitant

to start practicing a chorus problem was a common one if you want to change a

habit in the long term in the beginning you have to rely on willpower but

willpower is a finite resource and can't be relied upon in other words the more

decisions you make on a daily basis the more likely you are to experience what

psychologists call decision fatigue once you experience decision fatigue

improving habits especially at the end of a stressful day becomes less of a

priority habitual negative behaviors like forgoing the gym in favor of easier

ones like watching television become routine it becomes an almost inescapable

rut given a choice disempowering habits almost always trump behaviors that

stretch us they offer us a path of least resistance and when regularly forged

become the easier choice but what if you had a tool to reshape that path entirely

a tool that made positive habits more accessible what you need to focus on a

common problem people have with changing their habits is learning how to start if

you think of a habit you tend to think of the habit in its entirety all habits

are comprised of multiple steps tiny actions required to necessitate it and

thinking about it is enough to overwhelm anyone for example when you think about

going to the gym you don't focus on the routine part of the habit loop instead

you focus on everything else that the habit involves you think about packing

your gym bag traveling to the gym changing into your gym clothes

warming up exercising showering worming down and finally traveling home

that's a lot of things to think about but to ease into a new habit

you shouldn't picture the task in its entirety simply focus on the first

action you need to take care of in my case when going to the gym I only focus

on picking up my gym bag which is placed by my front door however what if we

redirected our focus from not only what we needed to do to start our habits but

also how we can make the start as easy as possible the power of activation

energy activation energy as ocker explains is that spark you need to start

in physics activation energy is the initial spark needed to catalyze a

reaction the same energy both physical and mental is needed of people to

overcome inertia and kickstart a positive habit in occurs example he

realized that having to remove his guitar from his closet to practice

increase the effort he needed to get started even if that effort only cost

him an extra 20 seconds those 20 seconds meant the difference between doing his

habit and not he came to a resolution put his guitar in the center of his

apartment guess what happened he practiced guitar for 21 days straight

without exception ocker called this the twenty second rule in his own words

lowering the barrier to change by just twenty seconds was all it took to help

me form a new habit in conclusion in order to adopt new habits you must avoid

relying on willpower and instead restrict the activation energy to start

to a maximum of twenty seconds which will allow your mind to see the activity

as being easier to adopt allowing you to form a solid habit for the future thanks

for watching if you enjoyed this video hit the like button and if you're new to

the channel please subscribe for more informative content as a bonus I've left

a link in the description if you want to pick up the book the happiness advantage

by Sean AK or