Hey, Kody here.

Spent a few days in Canada last week at Radium Hot Springs, Lake Louise, and Banff with my wife's family. It was a total blast and sooo relaxing. Today finally feels like the start of the New Year to me 😅 Oh and I started waking up at 5 am to work on my newsletter instead of staying up till 1 am, so that's felt great!

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habit example

The Sydney Opera house in Australia (regarded as one of the world's most beautiful buildings) was estimated to cost $7 million to construct and take just 6 years to build.

It ended up taking 16 years and a whopping $102 million. That's 14.5x more expensive than expected!

(Even after plans were cut back to save time and money!)

Too often, we make the same mistake in pursuing New Year’s resolutions - we set out with over-optimistic visions, only to be quickly disillusioned when we realize it’s not going as planned.

After even just a few days you might find your new goal/habit may take more time to accomplish and more effort to get there than you'd anticipated.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the importance of focusing on just ONE goal/habit at a time when it comes to New Year’s resolutions.

If you’re already struggling with yours, chances are that even with just one thing to focus on, you still might've made over-optimistic plans.

That's okay! We all do it.

In fact, studies show most people are over-optimistic in pursuit of their goals.

I used to hate this idea. The thought that I couldn't handle something that I thought should be so easy used to feel really discouraging.

"Shouldn't I just be able to do this?!"

After I swallowed my pride, I listened to my dad's advice:

"Unless you can do it repeatedly with ease, your habit is worthless."

Okay so I'm definitely paraphrasing but it was something like that.

And it hit me like a tonne of bricks... it didn't matter how cool or perfect the idea of my habit sounded.

Unless it was simple enough that I could realistically do it over and over again, it was just a nice idea.

Last year I did something I never thought I would: I decided to work out just 10 minutes a day.

To be clear, I'd exercised plenty of times before for much longer periods of time - but never had I set out to do it for such a short (seemingly insignificant) amount of time each day.

It seemed so dumb to me at first. Is a 10-minute workout even worth the hassle?!

I knew 10 minutes daily would NOT get me in shape.

But it had been months since I'd worked out at all, so I shrugged my shoulders and thought "it couldn't hurt".

For a couple months, that's all it was - 10 minutes.

But I got so consistent at it, and I loved how it felt, that it seemed really easy to start doing 15... then 20...

Then a buddy and I signed up to do a Spartan race.

Suddenly we were doing 60 minutes a day of intense crossfit and several-mile runs.

I was only prepared for it because I'd gotten really good at doing something simple every day.

Scaling it up was a piece of cake.

Don't underestimate the power of tiny, simple habits.

If faith like a mustard seed can move mountains, habits like mustard seeds can transform your soul and alter the trajectory of your life forever.

try it

Take a deep breath, reset, and ponder these questions:

1. Think, what's the goal/habit you're pursuing?
2. What obstacles have you faced so far with it?
3. In what ways could you simplify and make it far more likely you'll overcome those obstacles and succeed consistently?

inspiration

“Things are never as complicated as they seem.

It is only our arrogance that prompts us to find unnecessarrily complicated answers to simple problems."

- Muhammad Yunus

actual quote from my 3 year old 😂

*eats dirty snow*

"It smells like cookies"

Thanks for reading!

- Kody

P.S. This song has been my morning alarm for a few years now and I absolutely love it. Hope you do too! (try listening with headphones if you have them)

P.P.S. I started this newsletter because I believe people like you and I deserve access to bite-size, science-based strategies to build the habits of a happy life. 

And I've got a big goal. 

This newsletter needs to reach 1,000 people this year. 

I'm 16.5% there so far.

So if you enjoyed this newsletter, I'd appreciate if you’d share with a friend.

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