A few months back, I stopped going to the gym.
Reason being, I read Dan Kennedy’s “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs” and realized I was spending 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week, driving to and from the gym.
(In the book, he uses the example of the cumulative time spent wasted just stopping by Starbucks every day for coffee.)
Cumulatively, I was spending 120 hrs. per year, just driving to and from the gym.
Based on the value of my time, that’s tens of thousands of dollars wasted, just driving to the gym, let alone the time spent working out.
But it’s still important, for me at least, to work out each day, or most days.
So now, to save time and money, I just step outside first thing every morning and go for a walk.
And so I can continue building my luscious muscles, I got a “dip station” off Amazon that I set up in my home office, so I can do sets of push ups, dips, pull ups, etc. throughout the day.
And I’m probably more consistent with my workouts now more than ever, due to building habits with a low amount of resistance required to take action on the habit.
Now I don’t have to spend time driving to the gym to work out, I just step outside and go a walk.
Or, I just put my pen down and do a short set of push ups – something manageable, easy, and repeatable.
This is how habits are built, by creating a low barrier to entry.
And it’s the same thing with wealth-building.
Finance guru Ramit Sethi recommends automating your finances, for example setting up an automatic transfer each month to a savings account, so you don’t have to think about it.
Again, it’s all about creating low resistance (or zero resistance in the case of automating your finances) to instill healthy habits consistently.
And if you suck at saving money like most Americans do, the way to get started is to just save a very small amount each month, and then ever so slowly start increasing the amount.
You won’t even notice how easy it is to save using these types of methods.
Or to build consistent workouts, as the case may be.
Same thing goes for improving relationships, growing your business, or improving other areas of your life.
Just start small so you can build consistency first, then slowly challenge yourself to improve, but so slowly and so incrementally that it doesn’t really feel like more “work” or more “effort.”
And over time, the cumulative effect of your consistent efforts that you put forth every day will begin to show positive results toward your growth and achievement.
And it’s the same reason I’ve broken down my typical $2,500 full estate plan into unbundled, bite-sized chunks.
Beginning with, my low-cost living trust for just $500.
You can get healthy, you can get wealthy, and you can make preparations for the future, just one small step at a time.
Paul Denni
paul@denni.biz