Note: This is a guest post from Kendra Adachi, author of The Lazy Genius Way.
I’m high-strung and inflexible (both mentally and physically), so yoga is a no-brainer for my aching back and caffeinated squirrel brain.
For most of my thirties, I worked hard to make yoga a regular habit in my life. So often we build habits to support things we think should matter and actually don’t, but in this case, my reasons for the habit were rooted in what mattered: mindfulness and a body that doesn’t hurt all the time.
All I had to do was make it happen.
I attempted the whole “I’m going to do yoga for thirty minutes four times a week” thing and built a big system to support it. I downloaded apps. I bought the best mat, the best blocks, and the best workout top. I had checklists and phone alarms. I even bought a pass for ten hot yoga classes “for accountability.”
Side note: if you want to feel like you have no control over your life, start your Yoga Habit Journey at hot yoga class where you sweat like a linebacker for ninety minutes and then can’t drive home because your legs feel like they might be broken. It’s super fun.
Despite the system, I never once made it all four days.
Nothing was working, and it was beyond frustrating. I wanted to learn yoga! My reason really mattered! No one was forcing me! Why was this so hard?
Because it was too big.
Even if you’re trying to develop habits that support a life you deeply, authentically want, small steps are still your best bet because then you’ll actually move. If instead you put too much pressure on yourself with a big system, you’ll spend more time tending to its maintenance than developing the habit itself.
My Ridiculously Small Step
On January 1 last year, I did what many folks do at the start of a year and thought about my goals. I still wanted to build a yoga habit but knew my approach had to be different this time. If I wanted to practice yoga on a regular basis, I had to start so small it was embarrassing.
My commitment? One down dog pose a day.
Just one.
If you’re unfamiliar with yoga, a down dog is a pose where your hands and feet are both (ideally) placed flat on the ground and your butt is in the air. It’s how you’d make the letter A with your body in a game of charades. And with the exception of corpse pose (where you literally lie on the ground like a dead person), it’s about the easiest yoga pose there is.
Every day, I did one down dog. I bent over, put my hands on the ground and my butt in the air, held the pose for a couple of deep breaths, and then stood up again. Done for the day.
Obviously, I felt like a moron going on this laughably low-stakes exercise adventure, but I was determined to stick it out to see if this approach might actually do something. Going big hadn’t worked to develop the habit, so maybe going small would.
For a while, the answer—at least from a results perspective—was a resounding no. I didn’t automatically become more flexible, and I was not at all what you’d call Zen. Still, my habit was too small to quit, so I didn’t. I kept it up for weeks.
Huge win on its own.
I did my pose in the morning or before bed if I’d forgotten to do it earlier, and sometimes I’d do both. Occasionally, I’d do an entire sun salutation (a connection of a dozen poses that includes a down dog), which still took no more than fifteen seconds.
After about four months, I had gradually built upon that first small step and was now doing yoga maybe thirty seconds a day.
I repeat: thirty seconds a day.
Sure, on paper the whole thing felt foolish. What a joke to think thirty seconds of yoga meant anything, but the joke was on me because I had developed a daily habit of yoga. And even though it lasted only as long as a beer commercial, I was really proud. I was moving in the direction of something I had always wanted, and ridiculously small steps had been my road to get there. Almost two years later, I still practice yoga every single day, even if it’s just the one pose.
Here’s the thing about habits: you might think that if you don’t build a big system to support them, it won’t work, but I believe the opposite is true.
When you start big, you give up before you even begin, but the smaller the step, the more likely you’ll do it. The more you do it, the more you’ll keep doing it, making it a meaningful part of your daily rhythm which is the entire point.
Embrace the power of small steps. They matter, they count, and they’re the best way to create habits around what actually matters to you.
***
Kendra Adachi is known as The Lazy Genius, passionately and candidly sharing how to stop doing it all for the sake of doing what matters. Her new book, The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done is available everywhere.
This resonated so much with me! I totally love her take on this and agree, we fail over and over again and pretty soon we just stop trying. Intuitively I knew about taking small steps to a goal, but she reminded me that unless we take that small step, we won’t change a thing! Thank you for a great piece!
I love it when Kendra says “I repeat: 30 seconds a day” She’s a real Hoot! Kidding aside what she says is spot on. It is about starting a practice and sticking too it.
How many people do you know (& maybe including yourself) that will buy an exercise bike and use it as a clothes rack, or a treadmill only to have it collect dust, or buy a gym membership and make excuses why you just don’t have the time to go.
Small steps do work the best and gradually doing more is the way to go. The best thing too is not to berate yourself because you skipped a day. Feel good about your accomplishments and do it for yourself, dropping the I should do it to I want to do it.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I love the idea, and I strongly agree with it. Now I know that I can do it. ?
Great approach!!!! Can use it for many things1
This was SO GOOD!!! I fail constantly at making and keeping big changes in my life. I’m still working on minimalism, step by step my home is getting better. I didn’t do it in one big sweep ? , but it’s been a slow 4 yr process….but I am keeping those changes. I’ve developed habits over those years that remained. This article was so hilariously funny and truthful…..I exercise daily but haven’t gotten back to my yoga, which I really need. I’m going to do one or two poses a day!
Yes, love this. Small steps. I never thought about it applying to yoga, but it makes sense. Actually there is a jogging workout where you break up a 30 minute jog into 5 minute sequences. You run for 30 seconds, walk for 4.5 minutes the rest of the 5 minute segment. The next week, you run 60 seconds, walk for 4 minutes. Then tack on 30 seconds each week until eventually, you can jog the whole 30 minutes. I guess the principle can apply to so many things, including housework, blogging, starting a garden… all the things that seem like overwhelming steps to add on to our lives at first! Thanks for this reminder!
Agree, I love your comment. I have today finished reading a book, after two years having done any. Telling myself to reach up to so much pages a day has helped alot. Surprisingly, i got it done within a week and felt so fullfilled by this. Thumb up and thanks.
I do this, but with chi kung. I do the warm-up exercises every day, and the rest when I feel able. Plus a few yoga stretches before bed, currently added to by 90 shoulder stretches for a torn rotator cuff. Both routines are done standing up, so no need for a mat and I wear stretch clothing anyway (specifically so that I can exercise when I need to and not have to change). The trick to doing anything is to make it easy for yourself to do it.
Ah, I love Kendra, and I’m so excited about her new book! What a great article, and it was very timely for me as I’m (finally!) getting ready mentally and physically to tackle the last of the baby weight.
Thanks for sharing!
Wow this is just what I needed! I have been wanting to start yoga for over a decade. Bought the equipment and went to one free outdoor class. I couldn’t move for 3 days after! I never did it again but I still want to. Your story gave me the boost I was looking for. I will start with one pose a day and see what happens. Namaste
OH I have said the same thing even THIS morning. ” I need to start doing yoga”. I have all the junk to do it also!! ?. I will do the one pose a day and build from there. Thank you for your genius/ not genius solution to months of procrastinating!!
30 seconds a day! Great idea. I’m starting this with exercise.
I almost laughed reading this because I could put myself in your shoes (or on your yoga mat!). I’ve found that not being able to “go” to a yoga class because of the pandemic has actually increased the amount of yoga classes I attend (online and in my basement). I have one in half an hour! I think part of it was the stress of being so stiff, with so many injuries and being a beginner. Since there is no one “looking at me” I feel more empowered to just do the best I can with what the instructor presents. Not as much pressure. On days when there is no online class, I just do some bridges and twists and call it done.
This post is the truth for many of us. I came up with a ‘Minimum Workout.’ Every day I do 4 min tabata sets of push ups and air squats.(20 seconds push ups, 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds of the air squats, 4 rounds) and I do 3 planks front and both sides. I started at 15 seconds each and am now up to 45 seconds each. This has served me remarkably well, to the point that on days I feel motivated I have added kettlebell swings, snatches, and presses. Some days even running a half mile and doing Burpees. In conjunction with diet I have lost 45 lbs. On days I am unmotivated I can still manage to eke out the minimum and it keeps the momentum going.
Nice! I like it, “minimum workout.”
I like to do early morning big stretches . It does it all for my back and ache pain. Physical therapy helped and more likely the one week free trial yoga lesson that I took was a great opportunity to learn some new moves.
Perfect! Thank you!!
I have a chronic illness but some days are better than others. I’ve learned that on my sick days doing housework for 20 minutes a day will pay off. Usually by the end of the week I get it all done. Baby steps add up.
I got my house decluttered the same way. Grab a trash bag and go through the house. Throw away 25 things at least once a week that you don’t need. Before you know it, you have rid yourself of 100 pieces of junk in a month. Build from there. Books, paper, craft items, nick nacks, junk drawer……..
Hmmm.. was this written just to speak to me. :) Great post!
Reminds me of the message (one of the messages) in Atomic Habits.
Will try it out.
This eager beaver society has a hangup with achievement and ideology we are better when we’re doing more. The real power lies in letting yourself just be; taking on a little bit only as comes natural. If there’s striving, physical or mental pain, something’s wrong.
What a great post, and so true.
Many years ago I had gained quite a bit of weight. Enough that when I went to the doctor my blood pressure was too high. He wanted to put me on blood pressure meds. I said no.
He said if I didn’t do that to start walking a half hour a day, every day. I was so out of shape he said to start with a five minute walk. Every 3 or 4 days I was to add another 5 minutes. I told him I didn’t have time.
But I needed to make time for something so important! So the next morning I put my dog on a leash and we walked for 5 minutes. We walked every day, and kept adding the five minutes every few days. Eventually we worked up to 1 1/2 hours a day and it became a very enjoyable part of my day and a great way to start the morning.
My blood pressure came down to normal in three weeks, even though I was still overweight. By the end of the year I was at my ideal weight (per doctor).
That’s what i need to hear today. Hopefully i won’t have to be on those drugs that can be exhorbitant. A little cooperation with the doc. should do the trick here.
Yes! Yes! I’m gonna turn down my expectations to a shorter time and get it done! This entirely makes sense. Even this short time will make me feel like I’ve accomplished something and make my day a bit brighter. Great encouraging article!
Wonderful article. It reminds me of how I was inspired by my father who was very old and very slow with very bad arthritis. He could barely walk, but he was determined to go outside and work on something everyday. He moved very slow but it was amazing how much he accomplished. One day I saw him loading a pile of wood onto a trailer. I offered to help because it was a big job for him. I had the wood loaded in ten minutes. He sat watching. Afterwards, he said it would have taken him all day to get that done. That was my lesson. He got a lot done in a day, more than me moving as slow as a snail. He did just a little, and one thing at a time, very slowly.
GREAT article! I feel like she was speaking directly to/for me. Who would think that 30 seconds a day would develop a habit?? I can do this!!! :)
I think this is something that I’ll try in several areas of my life/procrastination.
And I have to ask: If you have squirrel brain, why do you caffeinate?
I also have squirrel brain. A nice cup of coffee in the morning actually slows me down and I can plan my day because I sit still to drink it. A cup of decaf or herbal tea at night does the same thing.
Simple & inspirational.
I loved the note.