The Importance of Not failing Twice In a Row When Building a New Habit

Building a new habit requires hard work. You start with the best intentions, make a plan, and try to prepare yourself for success. In the beginning everything is fine, you feel like you are on the top of the world, motivated, and achieving success, and you can see how this new endeavour will change the way you live.

Even without your fault, something appears to get in your way like:

• You indulge in work a lot.
• A family emergency appears.
• You have to do something important.

It is in these moments that you reach your breaking point and make a mistake. The fact that you made a mistake is not important, but what happens next is what matters.

After looking at many of the situations that I myself have been through, and those of people close to me, I've learned that the difference between people who succeed in acquiring habits and don't suffer the same failures and disappointments along the way, etc. is what they do when they encounter obstacles.

Acquiring the habit of running:

I am a person who loves change. I always look for small changes in my routine that help me stick to the things that I say are important to me. Over the years, I have failed to develop several new habits and routines, but somehow I still have the habit of running, and after several years it has become easier for me to get up in the morning and go for a run than to lie down. I have rooted this habit. 

When I try to start a new habit, I look at my running habit for inspiration and ask myself, "How can I do the same with this new routine?" Of course, my answer is always to do what I want for years as I used to run, and it becomes easy for me.

However, the truth is that I haven't been completely faithful to my running routine. Back in the day, my goal was to run five miles every day on three days of every week. I was pretty close to my goal, but I missed two days in a row, and the curious thing is that I rarely miss two in a row, i.e., I failed twice in a row.

Building habits is complicated, and I think not failing twice in a row is a huge part of being successful.

Avoid perfection and fail twice in a row:

If you compare your successful habits with those you've struggled with, you'll likely find the times when you stumbled and veered off track very similar, but the big difference is how those stumbles line up over time. If you commit to trying something new and forgiving yourself when you've done something wrong, you'll see that if you mess up a few times, you'll get back to work right away, and over time your failures will diminish.

But when you force yourself to be perfect from the start, it is easy to lose motivation after just one stumble. One stumble will lead to many stumbles, and soon after that you will give up completely. The longer you deviate from the path, the easier it will be to stay where you are. 

It is not just about overcoming obstacles, but rather on how quickly you can overcome them, so when it comes to building a new habit - that you want to stick to - you should lower your interest in failure a lot. It's OK to fail and that has to happen and the thing you should care less about is not to fail twice in a row. For example:

• Do you want to learn to play a musical instrument? Commit to training three times each week, and don't miss two sessions in a row.
• Do you want to go to the gym? Make a schedule and really go, don't beat yourself up when you miss a day, but just get up and go again.
• Do you want to eat healthy food? Make a plan to prepare new meals for yourself, and enjoy delicious foods when you fail to follow the new plan, but don't eat them for lunch or dinner.

The road to failure is littered with small bumps, as is the road to success, but the difference is in the number of pitfalls you allow to accumulate.

Conclusion:

Whoever succeeds or fails to acquire a new habit or routine is bound to encounter obstacles, but those who succeed do not allow failure to fester.