Atomic Habits author, James Clear, has a rule he lives by - never miss twice. Out of context, this might sound like a silly rule, or even an impossible one, but when it’s applied to habits, it makes loads of sense. It’s not realistic to think that we are going to maintain all of our healthy habits every day for the rest of forever. Let’s be honest, it’s March, how many of those New Year's resolutions are still intact? It’s hard to maintain that progress forever. But what if we took away that pressure? What if we accepted that we are human and that not every day is going to be exactly how we wanted it to be? Think about what this would look like in your life. Applying the “never miss twice” rule gives us room to be humans and veer off course sometimes, but also holds us accountable.
● Did you have ice cream for dinner because you were tired and couldn’t bring yourself to cook anything? That’s okay, not missing twice just means that the next morning you have spinach and eggs or yogurt.
● Did your meeting run late so you didn’t have time to go to the gym after work like usual? No worries, just make sure you fit in a workout tomorrow, maybe before work this time when it won’t be interred with.
● Fell asleep on the couch last night so you didn’t have time to read before bed? Don’t fret, just skip the TV tonight and get back on track. We all have habits we are trying to maintain in order to be our best selves. The idea, though, isn’t to be perfect. The idea is to make sure we stay on track enough that we don’t lose sight of our healthy habits and form undesirable habits. Try it this month, give yourself grace when you veer of course, but decide
never to miss twice in a row.
By: Cassie Zehenny (idea by James Clear)