The 60-Day Rule: Redefining Progress to Build Lasting Habits

Building new habits can feel like an uphill battle. We often start with great enthusiasm, only to find ourselves losing momentum and eventually giving up. Research suggests it takes around 59 to 70 days for a habit to truly stick. While a simple habit tracker can help you tick boxes, the real secret lies in understanding what 'progress' truly means in the early stages of habit formation.

Many of us approach habit building with an underlying arrogance, expecting immediate, visible results. This mindset often leads to disappointment and failure. What if we told you that consistent action, no matter how small, is far more powerful than striving for perfection from day one?

The Power of Daily Action, Not Daily Perfection

Consider the journey of building a new skill or routine. It's not about performing perfectly every single day for 60 days straight. It's about doing something related to that habit every day, even if it's just for a few minutes.

For instance, if your goal is to become a writer, you don't need to write a full chapter daily. Some days, you might only write for 10 minutes. Other days, you might dedicate hours. The key is that the thought of writing never leaves your mind because you're consistently engaging with it, even in small ways. This consistent engagement, over time, rewires your brain to view the activity as something you're supposed to do.

Embrace the Small Wins: Tick the Box!

This principle applies to any habit you want to build. Let's say you want to make exercise a new habit:

• Day 13: You only manage one push-up. Count it as a win! Tick the box on your habit tracker.

Or perhaps meditation:

• Three days in a row: You only meditate for 50 seconds, not the full minute you aimed for. That's fine! Tick the box. Count it as a win.

Your brain might resist this idea, thinking, "One push-up a day won't do anything for my body!" And you'd be right, not for your physical progress immediately. But this isn't about immediate physical change; it's about mental rewiring.

The Stages of Habit Building: Standardize Before You Optimize

We often want to skip straight to seeing significant results, but habit building comes in stages:

1. Stage 0: Not doing the habit at all. This is where most people are when they decide to start a new habit.
2. Stage 1: Doing the thing just to get used to it. This is the crucial, often overlooked, initial phase. The goal here is consistency, not perfection or rapid improvement.
3. Stage 2: Doing the thing to get good at it. This stage comes after the habit is ingrained and feels natural.

Our impatience often leads us to try and jump from Stage 0 directly to Stage 2. We want quick, visible changes by next week or next month. When these immediate rewards don't materialize, we get disappointed, perceive a lack of progress, and quit. This is why we fail.

Redefining Progress

The core issue is our definition of progress. If progress to you means quick, visible changes, you'll likely give up long before the 60-day mark. Instead, what if, just for now, progress isn't made by getting good at the thing, but simply by doing the thing and getting used to it?

• When progress means becoming 'fit,' it feels daunting.
• When progress just means getting down and doing 20 push-ups, it's much more achievable.

Instead of trying to optimize the best plan or make the most progress, focus on simply doing the thing and standardizing it in your routine every day for 60 days. You must change what progress means to you. If you can't even do the thing consistently, then progress isn't about seeing more results; it's simply about showing up every day.

Standardize before you optimize.

The Compounding Effect of Small Wins

With this approach, literally every day is counted as a win. If you just get down and do one push-up, you've won! And after doing that one push-up, since you're already there, you might as well do another, and another. Some days you'll do 10, some days 50, and some days just one. That's okay.

The important thing is that when you win, you're more motivated to do the same thing tomorrow, and the day after. Instead of waking up with anxiety about achieving a huge goal, you wake up knowing you can achieve your goal, which often motivates you to do more than you initially set out to do.

Progress might feel slow and 'dry' for a long time, but when it starts to rain, it pours. The actions and thoughts you take over the next 7, 60, or 120 days don't just add up; they compound.

Your Next 60 Days

Think about the habits you want to build or break. Perhaps it's meditation, exercise, or reducing distractions like excessive screen time. For the next 60 days, commit to the 'standardize before you optimize' approach.

Don't expect visible progress in terms of mastery. Instead, expect that after 60 days, you'll simply be used to these new routines. Only then can you truly begin to get good at them.

Where do you see yourself in the next 60 days? Whether you start today, tomorrow, or 60 days from now, the time will pass anyway. You might as well make the best of it. Take action, embrace the small wins, and redefine your idea of progress. Your future self will thank you.