Creating positive frustration - to build habits-

I had an “incident” in business years ago.

A business partnership that went south quite badly.

I had to reflect and reposition myself and what I was doing.

I decided to put several things in place, starting with taking better care of my body.

I put a plan in place to go to the gym five times a week.

Starting from nothing and no exercise at all at the time, so, quite the jump!

To achieve the habit, I wanted to play a new game: positive frustration.

In the first few weeks, I will go to the gym for… two minutes—and two minutes only.

And then, leave.

I know what you think: why? It takes more time to get dressed, drive to the gym, why not stay a bit longer?

Because I wanted to build the habit.

I would wake up early, get ready, drive to the gym, start and stop everything after two minutes, and drive home. I SOOOO wanted to do more, so I would stay for at least another few minutes! That was building positive frustration: I want to go the next day!

I did that for weeks and then gradually extended it to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, you know, the rest! 😄

I was building a positive cliffhanger every morning.

I managed to build the routine.

I worked for years until Covid happened, and we were all in Melbourne lockdown.

Now, I’m still working on how to get back into the habit again!

What works for you?