We all know how tough it is to develop new habits such as exercising regularly, eating healthy food, or many other changes for personal growth. So I was very intrigued to read a book on habit change called “Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results” by Stephen Guise.
In his book, Guise puts forth a strategy for effective habit formation by establishing “mini habits.” He defines a mini habit as “a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day.” For example, he talks about how he started with the mini habit of doing one push-up per day. After easily succeeding with this goal, he began to increase his level of exercise slowly over time and he now reliably goes to the gym to work out several times per week.
On his website, Guise offers numerous examples of potential mini habits you can schedule on a regular basis, such as reading two pages in a book, writing 50 words a day, walking to the end of your driveway, drinking one glass of water, or hugging one person.
I won’t cover the whole rationale and evidence for the effectiveness of mini habits, but Guise offers a thorough argument for why mini habits can help increase motivation and lead to more consistent habit change. He then provides a step-by-step guide to setting up your own mini habits.
Part of the premise is that the mini habits are so quick and easy that it’s almost impossible to fail. So when you succeed, this is reinforcing and increases the likelihood you will repeat the habit. Over time, you can slowly increase the duration or intensity of the habit, such as exercising longer or reading more pages each day.
I’ve begun trying a couple of mini habits over the past few weeks. I’ve been successful with doing one push-up per day (now I’m doing at least 10) and I’m consistently drinking more water each day.
Mental health advocacy as a mini habit
Then I began to think about how being more active and involved in mental health advocacy could also be set up as a mini habit. The reason I thought this might be a neat way to think about this issue is that I hear from quite a few people that they would like to be more involved in advocacy but they don’t quite know how to start or they can’t find the time for it on a consistent basis.
As I’ve written several times before, I think advocacy has two important components, both of which are necessary. First, you need to be better informed about issues related to mental health. Second, you need to get involved by taking action in some way to promote greater awareness about mental health issues or to work to improve access to mental health care or to reduce discrimination toward people with mental health issues.
So here are several goals for mini habits related to mental health advocacy that you could set for yourself. Some will help you be better informed, others can help you get more actively involved. I’ve tried to only list items that take less than 5 minutes to complete and that can be done almost anywhere with access to a computer or smartphone.
Possible mini habits for mental health advocacy:
- Read a social media post about mental health
- Surf one or more mental health websites
- Watch a YouTube video about mental health
- Read an editorial, article or blog post about mental health
- Read a comment on a mental health listserve
- Listen to five minutes of a podcast on mental health
- Read two pages from a book or article about mental health
- Share or post something on social media about mental health
- Make a comment on a mental health listserve
I’m sure you can come up with many other ideas for mini habits related to mental health advocacy, but the ones I’ve suggested may help you get started.
If you would like to learn more about mini habits, head over to the Mini Habits website, or check out the Mini Habits book. Guise has written a second book on Mini Habits For Weight Loss, which may also be of interest.
Let’s all try to devote some effort to establishing and maintaining one or more mini habits related to mental health advocacy. I’m convinced we can all become more effective advocates if we planfully and deliberately become better informed and more actively involved. Imagine the collective power of our advocacy if we all devoted just a few minutes a day to these efforts. Let’s get started!
Here’s a question: What mini habits related to mental health advocacy are you interesting in trying? Please leave a comment. Also, please subscribe to my blog and feel free to follow me on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram, “like” my Facebook page, or connect on LinkedIn. Finally, if you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend. Thanks!