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Mini habits are the most efficient investment 
for your limited willpower.
Sure, you can try to make it a habit to do 100 
push-ups every morning. But it’s pretty likely that 
your willpower will buckle after you hit 20, and it 
won’t be long before you open the cookie jar 
again. Willpower is fantastic, but it doesn’t seem 
that way when we’re first exercising it. So how 
can we strengthen our willpower when starting 
from scratch?
The solution here is mini habits. You can avoid 
the loss of willpower with minor, almost 
ridiculously tiny goals. After all, the main threats 
to our willpower are effort, perceived difficulty 
and fatigue – why not choose a target that only 
takes a little effort?
Picking an easy goal eliminates any perceptions 
of difficulty and is hardly daunting enough to 
make you feel fatigued. In other words, it’s a 
comprehensive cure for weak willpower.
Mini habits also get you moving, and once you 
are in motion, you’ll need less willpower to 
continue. As Newton’s first law states, an object 
in motion will not change its velocity unless an 
external force acts upon it.
In other words, the greatest hurdle we usually 
face is the first one: going from inertia to 
mobility. With a mini habit that helps you start 
small, you can be sure to start smoothly. In fact, 
you might even find out that you can achieve 
more than you set out to do!
For instance, you might decide to do five push-
ups, even though you only set a goal of doing 
one. Sure, it doesn’t look like much on paper, 
but you’ll be surprised at how pleased you feel 
with yourself!
Mini habits have a whole host of additional 
benefits.
Remember that person you always wanted to 
date but never had the courage to ask out? Try 
taking a step in their direction – and then 
another. Repeat this a few times. Soon enough, 
you’ll find yourself facing the object of your 
affection, who will probably ask you why it took 
you so long to walk across the dance floor. See? 
You’re already talking.
By doing things that you were never brave 
enough to do before, you can see how mini 
habits boost your self-esteem. The ability to 
believe in ourselves unfortunately gets gradually 
weakened through years of unreasonably high 
expectations from our parents, teachers and, 
eventually, ourselves.
Thankfully, mini habits provide you with the 
unique opportunity to experience success – 
rather than failure – several times a day. When 
you set goals that you can easily fulfill, you’ll feel 
great, no matter how minor your achievements 
were.
Compare this to facing the fact that you haven’t 
still achieved your one big goal every day. It’s 
easy to see which approach will keep you feeling 
positive! Don’t aim to become a famous pop star 
tomorrow; instead, just practice the piano for five 
minutes each day.
Mini habits are also great at making you feel like 
you’re in control. Humans hate the feeling of 
being out of control, or worse, being controlled 
by others. We like to make our own decisions, 
which is what makes us happiest.
A survey in Denmark demonstrated this, 
revealing that up to 90 percent of all employees 
are much happier when they have control over 
their own work and can make executive 
decisions.
A huge goal, such as devoting yourself entirely 
to the poor and those in need, can suck up your 

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time and energy until you come to resent the 
goal itself. In contrast, a mini habit, like giving a 
coin to every person who asks you for a 
donation, is simple, yet creates a positive 
personal interaction and leaves you free to live 
your life, all while starting you on the path to 
being a more generous person.