The Power of Just One Thing

In the fable about the Tortoise and the Hare, it was the slow but steady tortoise who won the race.

Most of us have several different habits we’d like to change or build. I certainly do! Yet often, despite having the best of intentions, we have a hard time staying motivated to achieve our goals. While new habits do take some initial commitment, one of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to change too many habits at once. Research shows that the surest way to change habits is to focus on changing just one thing at a time. It may take longer, but the results will be worth it.

It takes time for a new habit to become, well, habitual. Initially we must put in some effort to remember to practice it (scheduling it into your daily planner and/or keeping a ‘habit tracker’ can be hugely helpful with this). But the brain is always ‘pruning’ neuronal connections. When it notices connections are not being used anymore, it diverts energy away from them; and when it notices new connections being used regularly, it puts more energy towards them. What this means is that the more you repeat the same activity (or stop doing an unwanted one), the easier it becomes to keep on doing it, until eventually it becomes automatic. Your wonderful brain will work with you.

This process of a goal becoming an automatic part of our daily routine, known as automicity, takes time. In fact, according to research it takes approximately 66 days. I like to think that 10 weeks is a good time-frame to really make something part of my daily routine. At first, the slow progress can feel frustrating – we’d all like overnight results. However, doing a little everyday taps into our brain’s in-built habit-building mechanism that, in the end, will improve our chance of long-lasting change.

“Success is the product of daily habits.” – James Clear, author of Atomic Habits

Now, notice I said, ‘a little every day’. By choosing just one thing to change, we set ourselves up for success. Trying to commit to one big overhaul is so overwhelming, especially in a world where most of us already feel this way. It won’t take long before you’re slipping up on your well-intentioned goals, leaving you feeling despondent and, most likely, disappointed in yourself. If we start, instead, with just one thing, it is far easier to keep up the motivation until change takes effect. Then, in a month or two, you can focus on adding your next goal to your daily routine. In time, these little changes really do add up.

In setting yourself up to succeed, also think about the size of the goal. Committing to a 1-hour walk every day will require a lot of conscious effort. Even if this is the end goal, begin by committing to a smaller, bite-sized chunked, such as a daily 10-minute walk, or even just a walk around the block. This is manageable daily and will be much easier to stick to in those early stages of building the neural connections in your brain. After a few weeks (or even months), you can compound this habit, incrementally increasing the length of your daily walk, again, just by a little. In time, you will be taking longer walks, but shorter ones at the start are the key to habit formation.

Another useful tool is to join habits together, a strategy known as habit stacking. Remember that things we do regularly create strong neural connections. So, if we can tap our new goal onto an already existing habit, we can utilise connections that are already established. For example, if you habitually get up and turn the kettle on, practicing your new habit of mindful breathing or leg squats straight after you’ve turned it on will help the habit build quicker because there are already connections in place.

In the fable about the Tortoise and the Hare, it was the slow but steady and committed tortoise who won the race. Changing too many things too quickly doesn’t work at helping us succeed at our goals. When it comes to creating lasting change in your brain – even though it requires some patience – steady, gradual change is your best strategy. When you do it this way, you don’t even really need willpower. Just by having a daily practice you are hardwiring your brain to form the habit. Wherever you are, whatever your ‘dream big’ goals are, join me in starting with just one thing.