Fifty weeks ago, after reading Mini-Habits by Stephen Guise, I decided I wanted to develop a daily push-up habit.
I started with my Why, I chose a reliable cue and I took action.
In Week 1, I did one push-up a day.
That was it. No more. No less.
In Week 2, I did two push-ups a day. In Week 3, I did three push-ups a day. And so on.
It’s Week 50 and today, I 50 push-ups.
I’ve learned a lot about habit formation and making change stick over the past 50 weeks so today, I want to share 10 lessons I learned from developing a daily push-up habit. These lessons are applicable to any change you might be making.
1. Baby Steps Trump Big Leaps
Despite having a personal best of 20 push-ups before I began developing my daily push-up habit, I decided to start Week 1 with one push-up a day. Why? I wanted to make the habit so easy I couldn’t say no (HT: Leo Babauta).
Many people attempt to make changes in their lives by taking big leaps, when, instead, they should focus on ONE tiny change at a time. For example, going to the gym for 15-minutes a day, twice a week, as a beginner, is A LOT easier than going for an hour, five days a week.
Similarly, by starting at one push-up a day, I had 20 weeks to automatize the habit and before I even arrived at my personal best in Week 20. Having that momentum behind me made showing up and doing the work a lot easier. This leads me to the next lesson I learned…
2. Consistency is Everything
The more I study habit formation the more I realize the habit is not counting calories, going to the gym, writing in your journal, completing a project, decluttering, reading … it’s STARTING.
There are going to be days when you don’t feel like doing the habit, but if you commit to taking the first step – opening the app, picking up your gym bag, turning on your laptop, writing one sentence, turning on your Kindle – you’re a lot more likely to follow through with the full behavior.
There were many days when I didn’t “feel” like it, when I rationalized, “one day won’t hurt” when I couldn’t be bothered – but I still committed to taking the first step: getting into the push-up position. If all I did was that, I always followed through with my push-ups.
3. Don’t be Afraid to Chunk Habits Down
When you take baby steps, the habit is easy to start and easy to sustain. But as you graduate to the full behavior, it grows and you risk jeopardizing your progress.
To prevent this from happening, chunk the habit down into smaller manageable segments.
When I arrived at Week 20, for example, I chunked my 20 push-ups into two sets of 10 with one-minute rest time. As behavior change writer James Clear says, “Do things you can sustain.”
4. Set Milestones (and Celebrate Them)
If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll know I’m a strong advocate of “gamifying” habit development and playing “small, addictive games” (HT: Daniel Coyle). When building a habit, there are many milestones you can celebrate including:
- Doing the habit once
- Doing the habit two days in a row
- Doing the habit seven days in a row
- Doing the habit 30 days in a row
- Missing one day but resuming the next
And so on.
You can also celebrate achievements related to metrics. For example, doing 10 push-ups was a milestone for me, as one 25 and, of course, 50.
Remember, if you can count it, you can turn it into a game.
5. Focus on Process Over Product
Most people, when making changes in their lives, focus on that perfect outcome they’re trying to achieve. Losing 14 pounds. Writing 10,000 words. Deadlifting 150 pounds. Seldom, though, do people strive for a perfect process.
When I was developing my daily push-up habit, I wasn’t thinking about a number I wanted to move toward; I was thinking about each individual push-up and perfecting it to the best of my ability. You don’t set out to build a wall; you say, “I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.”
6. Use Existing Habits as Cues
Almost all cues fit into one of five categories:
- Location
- Time of day
- Other people
- Emotional state
- Immediately preceding action
An immediately preceding action, in my experience, is the most reliable cue. Why? Because you can use an existing habit as a trigger. Writer Tynan suggests using constant cues as triggers for new habits. These are behaviors that happen every day such as waking up, eating, going to the bathroom, etc.
I chose to do my daily push-up habit immediately after showering because it’s an activity I do every day. Fifty weeks in, it hasn’t failed me once.
7. Self-Discipline is Knowing When to Stop
Most people think of self-discipline as something to rely on to start a habit. Saying, “I don’t have the self-discipline to go to the gym” is a common example.
What I’ve come to realize, though, is self-discipline is something that we rely on to stop a habit as well. When I was developing my daily push-up habit, in the beginning, I had to rely on my self-discipline to not do more than I was capable of.
This requires a lot of patience and if ignored, can be your undoing.
8. Labeling Makes a Big Difference
When you decide to make a change in your life, do you say you have to do it or you get to do it? When you label a behavior as something you get to do, rather than something you have to do, it becomes a choice, a reminder of how lucky you are.
Labeling goes beyond reframing, too. When I began building my daily push-up habit, I labeled it as an “experiment.” I was gauging what was working, what wasn’t, and what could be improved. As far as I was concerned, I couldn’t fail – I could only learn from feedback.
9. Get Others Involved
Around Week 12, my wife, Luba, got involved. She would critique my form, encourage me, and remind me if I forgot to do my habit. Sometimes she would even join in. Sharing my experience with a loved one made it far more enjoyable.
If you’re trying to help a loved one make a change in their life, do it with them – it’s one of the most effective ways to inspire them to change.
10. Keep Going
I never planned on doing 50 push-ups. I just decided to run a habit-forming experiment. When you engineer systems into your life and business, change comes more easily. It simply becomes a by-product of what you’re already doing.
I don’t intend to stop anytime soon. I’m having way too much fun.
One hundred—I’m coming for you.
Are you currently developing a new habit? If so, what habit are you building? Leave a comment below.
I’ve just recently appreciated how great mini habits can be. I’ve been wanting to learn Norwegian for a year but never got around to making time for my planned 1-hour sessions. A few weeks ago, I’ve started JUST doing ~5 minutes a day (2 lessons within Duolingo) and I’m doing it every single day now! It’s so easy and quick, I look forward to it instead of dreading it.
That’s fantastic Stephanie. Keep me posted on your progress!
That’s a really great article, Sam!
I’m using the exactly same philosophy building my meditation habit.
I started with something around 2-3min/day, which is impossible to do not do.
I kept almost 1 month with this time, and just yesterday I increased it – I’m now doing around 5-7 minutes per day.
But this system is just awesome, because it’s really easy. It’s really easy to just do and keep doing.
Thank you for your really nice tips!
Thanks Rodrigo. Glad to hear it’s working for you. Keep up the good work!
Amazing and congrats. However for the future I would suggest adding pullups instead of taking the pushups to 100. You should always balance push and pull exercises.
Thanks Doug. I workout in the gym as well so I do get a healthy balance of push and pull exercises. This was just for fun. Thanks for the feedback, though.
Wow, this was inspiring as hell. Thanks for sharing. I’ll try building the push-up habit (which I have tried in the past, but failed because of many common errors you point out in the article).
Thanks for reading! Let me know how you get on.
Sam, I’m on 46 pushups this week so I’m behind you! I’ve been doing the same thing and adding one per week. Also, I play the guitar and have been working on the habit of doing certain finger exercises and scales everyday in the same way that I added pushups to my daily activities. I really appreciate your point # 6 about using existing habits as cues. I think I’ll be able to use those ideas in the future. Thanks! Kurt
Love it Kurt. I’m also a guitar player and have been considering applying the same principles to guitar practice. What scales are you using?
I mostly use major scales and play them in different positions up and down the neck. For example, I could play a C Major scale starting on the sixth string, 8th fret. Then for variety I could play that scale starting with either index, middle, ring or little finger. Depending on which finger I start with I end up playing different strings on different frets (if that makes sense!) Also, I mix in scales in thirds or other intervals so instead of C-D-E-F-G etc I would play C-E-D-F-E-G etc. I think learning an instrument would be a good candidate for an approach like you use with push-ups – consistency, small steps, and gradual improvement. I’d be glad to hear more about your approach with guitar if you have time. Maybe even a future blog post 🙂
Definitely potential for an article. We have a lot of musicians in our community. Thanks again for sharing Kurt.
Self-discipline is knowing when to stop is the big takeaway for me here. I’ve hurt myself quite badly by continuing to do pushups after I’ve felt pain. I lost a number of months recovering.
The good thing is that it led me to one of your other points, which is to involve others. I finally got a personal trainer and he built me back up to the point where I can do pushups correctly and keep being fit while traveling places where I can’t access a gym.
Thanks for the great post!
Thanks Anthony. Glad to hear it resonated with you.
Hello Sam 🙂
Great article, as usual 🙂 many thanks again 🙂
Just a brief note that I have been exercising in the morning for years. I always start with a 7 mn stretch workout, always the same. My cue: first thing when I get up in the morning, I get my exercice pants and tee-shirt on, and launch the app. Then I exercice with a pushups app or situps, everyday except on Saturdays and sick days.
I suggest you to consider one of these exercices app, one progresses a lot faster. The mini-habit is the 7 mn stretch.
Thanks again for your great articles, best
Olivier
Thanks Olivier. What’s the app you use? Would love to check it out.
I use ‘seven’ by Perigee for stretching, along with sit-ups pro and push-ups pro by Fitness 22
Hope it helps, best
Thanks Olivier. I’ll check it out.
I have been exercising for 5 mins every week day morning for two weeks. Next week I plan to increase my time.
Fantastic Mary! Best of luck with it.
Awesome lessons! I also felt this on my skin.
When I first started to write my blog, I was fine if I did an article a week. Then I did two in a week. Sooner than I realized, I achieved one article per day.
That’s awesome Cornel. Keep it up!
I totally agree on setting milestones and being consistent. I’m a big fan of performing tiny changes over time too. Great post.
Thanks for reading Juan. Glad you liked it.
I feel if you don’t do something properly don’t bother at all. That is my philosophy anyhow.
Everyone should follow what works for them, of course, though.
I agree, Steffan. There’s no one-size-fits-all. Thanks for chiming it 🙂
Hi Sam!
Wow this was really cool! You impress me. Thanks for sharing such detailed information. I started to day with one push up! 🙂 I cant wait for tomorrow!! My personal best today is only like 11-13, so maybe i will hit a wall sooner than i hope. But i really believe in this, building up slooowly.
I work out 4 times a week (2 days upperbody including push ups or bench press) so i wonder if you think this will be to much for my week arms even if i go really slow? How much do you work out beside this “hobby” ?
Good luck on your trip to 100 push ups!
/Caroline from Sweden (there for the crapy english)
Thanks a lot, Caroline. I’m glad you enjoyed it. When I wrote it I was also following the 5-day workout Michael Matthews outlines in “Bigger Leaner Stronger.” I recommend consulting that book for more information 🙂
I’m glad to have stumbled upon your writing, it’s a helpful reframing of how one can think about goal setting. I tend to do the all or nothing approach, where I’ll exhaust myself before a habit has had the chance to develop. Finding a way to compartmentalize a goal and ‘set’ the habit somewhere naturally into my routine, making the goal approachable and undaunting (even if it feels silly and exceptionally easy to begin with) – these were very helpful takeaways. We live in a time when results are expected to be big and to happen overnight. However, giving onseself permission to start small and continue slowly is perhaps the key to sustainability.
I have been attempting to restructure my life in every way imaginable and all at once. Having so many moving parts and unrefined goals are making for a web of confusion as to what my next doable step could possibly be.
I’m going to start with push ups, and give my undevided attention to each and every one of them. I’m going to try embodying this type of depth and simplicity within other aspects of my life as well. Thank you.
Thanks for reading, Eli. Glad you found it helpful. Let me know how you get on.
Thanks for the article many people needed to see and hear how people struggle and overcome adversity you helped me see how to better helped the people around me
Thanks, Desjuan. Let me know how you get on.
Enjoyed the article. I work out every day so I realize your words are so true. Thanks for taking the time to write it… hope fully others will benefit by giving it a shot . Good luck to you.
Thanks a lot, Bill. I’m glad you found it useful.
Step #2 can’t be over-stated. So true. Thanks for the inspiration!
My pleasure, Nic.
Very nicely written article. Looking forward to many more articles in the future.
different push ups
Thanks, Dave. Appreciate the comment.