Today’s Daily Success Step is “Tiny Habits to Double Your Effectiveness.”

Our behaviors are what determine our success. Yes, luck can play a part… so can the advantages and disadvantages imparted to you at birth. But in the end, it’s about actions that you take repeatedly that determine your outcome.

Every behavior you do can be classified in one or the other of three ways:

1. Programmed, stimulus/response behaviors
2. Habits
3. Deliberate acts, often after careful reasoning and forethought

Now, 1) stimulus/response is how you came from the factory. Put a hand on a hot stove, “OW! That hurts!” Not a lot of delay, no real decision making, pretty predictable behavior.

2)Habits…well, I’ll get to that in a second.

3) Deliberate acts are interesting in the fact that there’s a finite amount of willpower that every human has. Folks that use “willpower” to make and stick to decisions a limited amount of “fuel” to do that.

This is a real phenomenon called “ego depletion“. Get this: if you were offered a tasty treat and refused, that same day you might skip your new class at the gym. Why? Perceived effort.

Maybe you had every intention to start that new workout class, but you used ‘willpower’ to resist the sweet snack. NOW the perceived effort to go to the new workout class is greater.

Because you already consumed some of your willpower juice…  there’s not enough to get you going.

Okay, so how does this impact YOU and your bottom-line profits?

Well, you know that there are a number of tasks that every entrepreneur needs to do.

And it’s like a chain… because EVERY link counts.

As an entrepreneur you know that some things are easy and hard. Some things are fun and some just have to be done anyway. It’s a necessary evil, especially when you’re small and can’t delegate tasks you don’t want.

Here’s where habits come into play:

The stimulus/response thing doesn’t require a lot of decision. You still might face ego depletion there, though… if there’s a tiger chasing you the stress consumes willpower juice same as a really tough decision.

But HABITS… habits don’t consume any willpower points from your available cache at all. It’s… habitual.

SO that’s what I what to encourage you to do: take the most important, profit making actions that depend on you to do and do well, and find a way to turn it into a habit. When you do, you’ll experience a freedom that’s unparalleled.

It’s automatic.

Now, you might need to make decisions now and and then, and that’s a gooood thing. You’re not a robot.

But whenever you really need the willpower juice to make those decisions, you’ll be better equipped with a non-depleted ego.

I dunno who said it, but I read somewhere that a habit is a relic of a decision made long ago.

For the next DailySuccess Step, we’ll look at how to install those habits, so they work for you instead of against you.

See you then!

Keep Stepping,

Kurt