Making a decision to do something is like moving through a real jungle: It's hard. Your brain hates using energy, so it came up with a trick. All your actions and behaviours leave paths in the jungle of your brain. The more often you do something, the more stamped out the trails become, so you take these familiar paths because it is comfortable and effortless. This explains why change is hard when your mind is full of established paths.

Change is actually hard

If we want to change and introduce a new behaviour into our lives,  we can focus on small changes, not big ones. Improving your life a little is much better than aiming high and doing nothing.

Introducing new habits

Most people have a gap between the person they are and the person they want to be. There are little things you think you should do and big things you ought to commit to, like working out regularly, eating healthy, writing a novel, reading more or simply doing your hobby.  But it may seem that you must become different to achieve your goals. While other people can consistently put in more effort with discipline and willpower, maybe you find yourself slipping back into your old ways and always seem to fail.

Struggling to achieve your goals

The best way to make change easier is not to force it with willpower. Instead, convince your brain that it's no big deal. For example, if you want to become fitter, the first thing to do is break this vague goal into clear, separate actions. The idea is to make the action as easy as possible. It should be so small that it is manageable and so specific that you don't have to think about it a lot. For example, doing ten squats every morning.

How to build a habit

<ul><li>A routine is a sequence of actions you carry out the same way every time because they've worked well for you. For example, you get the same ingredients for your favourite dish and cook them the same way because you like the taste of the result.</li><li>Routines can eventually become habits, which feel easier because they are a sequence of actions you do without thinking about them. You don't have to convince yourself to do something that's a habit - you just do it.</li></ul>

Routines and habits

Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time Get your Habit Journal here: https://shop-us.kurzgesagt.org/collections/habit Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-change/ If you are like most people, there is a gap between the person you are and the person you wish to be. There are little things you think you should do and big things you ought to achieve. From working out regularly, eating healthy, learning a language, working on your novel, reading more or simply actually doing your hobby instead of browsing reddit. But it can seem that to achieve your goals, you have to become a different person. Someone who is consistent, puts in more effort, has discipline and willpower. Maybe you have tried your hardest to be like that. And it worked! For a while. Until you find yourself slipping back into your old ways. In the end, you always seem to fail. And with every failed attempt, you become more and more frustrated and annoyed with yourself. If you believe “success and hustle” internet, it is all your own fault: if you don't succeed, you just didn’t want it enough and the failure is all you. But change is actually hard. But as with most things in life, understanding why makes things easier. OUR CHANNELS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ German: https://kgs.link/youtubeDE Spanish: https://kgs.link/youtubeES French: https://kgs.link/youtubeFR Portuguese: https://kgs.link/youtubePT Arabic: https://kgs.link/youtubeAR Hindi: https://kgs.link/youtubeHI Japanese: https://kgs.link/youtubeJA Korean: https://kgs.link/youtubeKO HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This is how we make our living and it would be a pleasure if you support us! Get Merch designed with ❤ https://kgs.link/shop Join the Patreon Bird Army 🐧 https://kgs.link/patreon DISCUSSIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Reddit: https://kgs.link/reddit Instagram: https://kgs.link/instagram Twitter: https://kgs.link/twitter Facebook: https://kgs.link/facebook Discord: https://kgs.link/discord Newsletter: https://kgs.link/newsletter OUR VOICE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Kurzgesagt voice is from Steve Taylor: https://kgs.link/youtube-voice OUR MUSIC ♬♪ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ 700+ minutes of Kurzgesagt Soundtracks by Epic Mountain: Spotify: https://kgs.link/music-spotify Soundcloud: https://kgs.link/music-soundcloud Bandcamp: https://kgs.link/music-bandcamp Youtube: https://kgs.link/music-youtube Facebook: https://kgs.link/music-facebook The Soundtrack of this video: Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/3MeaN4M Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/3as6FB9 If you want to help us caption this video, please send subtitles to subtitle@kurzgesagt.org You can find info on what subtitle files work on YouTube here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734698?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=7296214 Thank you! 🐦🐧🐤 PATREON BIRD ARMY 🐤🐧🐦 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Many Thanks to our wonderful Patreons (from http://kgs.link/patreon) who support us every month and made this video possible: ziipzaaapM16A4, Filippo, Alloy robot, Harold Mabin Jr, Toby Lowe, BiohazardVictim, Riad Salihu, Gunnstein Lye, Jeff Wheeldon, Andy Kelly, Quenby Joanette, Daniel Schulte-Hillen, Val Kabalkin, Maximilian Thomas Goldstein, Tyler Lindberg, Felix, Davesanify, Russ Newman, Kira, Thomas Schenck, Skyler Stanley, dirk from wellington, LoveGiants (Polyamorous) Seeking 4 BrotherHusbands, BalrogWing, Coffee is the path to victory, Addie, Lucas, vb, Santiago Perez, Robert Walsh, Angus Jake Smith, JamesDBartlett3, Marlison Gosalvez de Alencar, Rahul Golwalkar, Keerthi Vasan, Brian Bradley, Lincoln Volk, Haubrechts, Avalanche, Craig B, Tina Hatch, Nathan Ornat, Amathara, khalifa almehairbi, jtfletchbot, Steven Zeck, Maurice Ibler, Bafy78, Andreas Høve Smidt-Nielsen, Victoria Camp, Andrew Dawson, pierluigi valente, GH, Jay C, Sergey Melnik, CultistLemming, Thane Stevens, Alex MacKay, SimpleAvocado, Dave Kircher, Karen Rosenow, James Pita, Kyron

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Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time
Get your Habit Journal here: https://kgs.link/shop-162

Sources & further reading:
https://sites.google.com/view/sources-change/

If you are like most people, there is a gap between the person you are and the person you wish to be. There are little things you think you should do and big things you ought to achieve.
From working out regularly, eating healthy, learning a language, working on your novel, reading more or simply actually doing your hobby instead of browsing reddit.
But it can seem that to achieve your goals, you have to become a different person. Someone who is consistent, puts in more effort, has discipline and willpower. Maybe you have tried your hardest to be like that. And it worked! For a while. Until you find yourself slipping back into your old ways. In the end, you always seem to fail. And with every failed attempt, you become more and more frustrated and annoyed with yourself. 
If you believe “success and hustle” internet, it is all your own fault: if you don't succeed, you just didn’t want it enough and the failure is all you. But change is actually hard. But as with most things in life, understanding why makes things easier. 


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Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time

Data from <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31141585/">a study was published in 2019</a> showed that among women ages 45 and older, those women who took 4,400 steps per day had significantly lower mortality than those with 2,700 steps per day. In fact, the more steps the women took, the lower the mortality rate until they reached 7,500 steps per day where the benefits leveled off. Interestingly, the speed of the steps didn’t matter, just the number of steps.

The More You Walk, The Healthier You Are

If you think back to ancestral humans — before farming was done — we were all hunter-gatherers, and getting food took effort. If hunting and gathering had been too taxing physically for our ancestors, well, we’d have evolved differently. Being able to move a lot also means being capable of moving to places with better food when needed. If this kind of movement also keeps us healthy, it’s an evolutionary win.

The Evolution Of Walking

The standard number of daily steps seems to be 10,000 steps a day, but it didn’t come from science — and no one is exactly sure where it comes from.Most probably, it <a href="https://www.popsci.com/story/health/10000-steps-evidence-study/">is from</a> the name of a pedometer that was sold in Japan in 1965, which was called Manpo-kei and translates to “10,000 steps meter” in English.

The Number Of Steps To Be Taken Daily

Among adults younger than 60, the more steps taken, the lower the mortality rate until reaching 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day. For those aged 60 and older, the health benefit plateaued around 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.Women in the US seem to average a little less than 5,000 steps a day, so many people are starting from a good place.

The Verdict: 8k to 10k Steps A Day

Dr. Jen Gunter, ob/gyn, author and podcast host, looks at the belief that people need to take 10,000 steps a day -- and explains what the science says about it.

health

Health

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Exercise & Fitness

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Sports

How many steps a day do we really need to take? Here are the facts

In short, data from more than 500,000 people suggest that meaning is less important to happiness for wealthy people. This does not mean that wealthy people are struggling to find meaning: Both their meaning and happiness levels are on par with, or even higher than, their lower-income counterparts.  Perhaps wealthy people simply do not need meaning to be happy. Their resources minimize the stress of meeting daily needs like paying bills or affording food. They can also afford the kinds of purchases that boost happiness, like fun experiences and enjoyable hobbies.

The Findings: The Rich Are Busy Being Rich

For wealth status, participants rated their socioeconomic status using the MacArthur social ladder, which asks participants where they believe they stand compared to others considering their money, education, and jobs.  Once again, the higher someone reported being on the socio-economic ladder, the less meaning predicted their happiness.

Study 3: Different Questions

The more important takeaway is that meaning may be extra important for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613507286">people without much money</a>. Compared to their wealthier counterparts, poor people suffer high rates of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hec.1011">depression and other mental health</a> problems. Incorporating meaning-making into one’s life may be a free way to improve happiness.

Meaning Is A Currency Of The Poor

<ul><li>Researchers and philosophers identify two types of psychological well-being, which can be summarized as the purposeful and the pleasurable. </li><li>Previous research has already established that, on average, wealthy people experience happier, more meaningful lives. </li><li>A new study asks a more nuanced question: Does meaning predict happiness, regardless of wealth? The results suggest that meaning is less important to happiness for wealthy people. </li><li>More importantly, meaning may be extra important for people without much money.</li></ul>

Key Takeaways

Researchers and philosophers differentiate between two types of psychological wellbeing: eudaimonic (the meaningful, purposeful, or significant) and hedonic (the pleasurable or enjoyable). The latter aligns with what most people term “happiness.” To understand the distinction, imagine working hard on an important life goal. This might feel meaningful, but unpleasant. On the other hand, taking heroin might feel meaningless, but enjoyable.

Defining Meaning and Happiness

The wealthier someone is, the less meaning affects their happiness levels. Importantly, this does not mean that high-income people reported less overall meaning or happiness — their levels were about as high, or even higher, than those of lower-income participants. But the study found that meaning was less important to their happiness.

Study 1: The Americans

Once again, the correlation between meaning and happiness became smaller as wealth increased.This pattern held in 10 out of 11 world regions, including Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Study 2: The World

One of the downsides of large survey studies, of course, is that the researchers cannot control every relevant factor that could affect the results. In particular, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(199701)14:1%3C71::AID-MAR5%3E3.0.CO;2-L">age and religiosity</a> are correlated with meaning and income, making them potential confounding factors. Additionally, income might affect how much meaning and happiness vary — in other words, how much their scores can be expected to spread out. This can affect statistical analyses.

Confounding Factors

On one hand, meaning might be especially important for wealthy people’s happiness, since all of their basic needs are met and they have the resources to pursue grand, meaningful experiences. On the other hand, meaning may be less important, because it is easier for the wealthy to pursue happiness in other ways, like fancy trips, fun cars, and big parties.

The Paradox Of Wealth

Meaning and happiness are rarely totally separate. In general, meaningful experiences make people feel happy, and vice versa. For example, spending time with friends, buying gifts for others, and celebrating life milestones can be both meaningful and enjoyable. Finding meaning in life is therefore usually a good way to boost happiness.

Finding Meaning Boosts Happiness

To the possible disappointment of anyone hoping to indulge in some schadenfreude, prior research establishes that, on average, <a href="https://nobascholar.com/chapters/34/download.pdf">wealthy people experience happier</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118">more meaningful</a> lives than their lower-income counterparts. This is probably because money can buy both meaning and happiness, so long as you <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057740811000209">spend it in the right way</a> — for instance, by purchasing experiences, time with loved ones, or gifts for others.

Money Does Buy Happiness

Philosophers identify two different kinds of happiness. Research finds that having money makes it easier to attain both of them.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

Can't buy me meaning? Money cuts a quicker path to happiness

The pursuit of happiness and meaning are two of our most central motivations in life. A wealth of research in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flourish-Visionary-Understanding-Happiness-Well-being/dp/1439190763">positive psychology</a> suggests that happiness and meaning are, in fact, essential elements of well-being. Happiness and meaning are <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439760802303044#.VqUZcLzLHb8">strongly correlated with each other</a>, and often feed off each other. The more meaning we find in life, the more happy we typically feel, and the more happy we feel, the more we often feel encouraged to pursue even greater meaning and purpose.

The Pursuit Of Happiness Vs Finding Meaning In Life

In recent years, a number of studies have further supported the differences between happiness and meaning.  Quite predictably, factors such as feeling connected to others, feeling productive, and not being alone or bored contributed to both happiness and meaning.Some differences:<ul><li>Finding one’s life easy or difficult was related to happiness, but not meaning.</li><li>Feeling healthy was related to happiness, but not meaning.</li><li>Feeling good was related to happiness, not meaning.</li><li>Scarcity of money reduced happiness more than meaning.</li><li>Relationships are more important than achievements.</li></ul>

Differences Between Happiness And Meaning

Meaning<a href="http://www.drpaulwong.com/a-decade-of-meaning-past-present-and-future/"> has at least two major components</a>: the cognitive processing component involves making sense and integrating experiences, and a purpose component, which is more motivational and involves actively pursuing long-term goals that reflect one’s identity and transcend narrow self-interests. An extensive study found that the frequency of positive emotions was only weakly related to measures of adaptive functioning at follow-up (which ranged from half a year to 7 years). In fact, positive emotionality was negatively related to optimism and positively related to emotion suppression at follow-up.

The Two Components Of Meaning

While happiness may make us feel good in the moment, the avoidance of negative thoughts and feelings may stunt personal development over time. After all, personal development often requires experiencing a full range of emotions. There is also emerging research that over time, happiness is associated with an <a href="http://scholar.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/clanderson/files/mauss_savino_anderson_weisbuch_tamir_laudenslager_2011.pdf">increased sense of loneliness</a> and a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160511/">decreased sense of well-being</a>.

The Downside Of Happiness

Parents often report that they are very happy they had children, but parents who are living with children usually score very low on measures of happiness. It seems that raising children can decrease happiness but increase meaning. Similarly, revolutionaries often suffer through years of violence and discord for a larger purpose, which ultimately brings great satisfaction and meaning to their lives and the lives of others.

Parenthood Paradox

The two measures of meaning (cognitive processing and purpose) were positively associated with most of the measures of adaptation. In particular, cognitive processing was very strongly related to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grit-The-Power-Passion-Perseverance/dp/1501111108">grit</a> (passion and perseverance for long-term goals), and self-distancing was robustly related to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Science-Gratitude-Make-Happier/dp/0618620192">gratitude</a> and well-being, and negatively related to emotion suppression. The interaction between cognitive processing and self-distancing was additionally associated with measures of adaptation. Meaning-making is particularly adaptive if one can maintain a self-detached third-person perspective.

Become A Detached Witness To Life

It seems that happiness has more to do with having your needs satisfied, getting what you want, and feeling good, whereas meaning is more related to uniquely human activities such as developing a personal identity, expressing the self, and consciously integrating one’s past, present, and future experiences.

Happiness Is Fleeting

Years of research on the psychology of well-being have demonstrated that often human beings are happiest when they are engaged in meaningful pursuits and virtuous activities.A further investigation of the similarities and differences between happiness and meaning can contribute substantially to our understanding of this ‘sweet-spot’ of well-being: that seemingly magical combination of happiness and meaning that sets off the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/4230387/A_Virtuous_Cycle_The_Relationship_Between_Happiness_and_Virtue">virtuous cycle</a> that can ultimately lead to a life well-lived.

A Life Well-Lived

We only scratched the surface of what life is.

The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life

The researchers looked for recurring features in the models and found six: personalization, a closed-loop process, asset sharing, usage-based pricing, a collaborative ecosystem, and an agile and adaptive organization. No model displayed all of them but having a higher number of features usually correlated with a greater chance of success at transformation. (The taxi service Uber can claim five of the six.)

The Main Recurring Features Of Transformative Companies

Innovators sometimes use technology to move away from traditional hierarchical models of decision making in order to make decisions that better reflect market needs and allow real-time adaptation to changes in those needs. The result is often greater value for the customer at less cost to the company.

An Agile and Adaptive Organization

Definitions of the “business model” vary, but most people would agree that it describes how a company creates and captures value. The features of the model define the customer value proposition and the pricing mechanism, indicate how the company will organize itself and whom it will partner with to produce value, and specify how it will structure its supply chain. Basically, a business model is a system whose various features interact, often in complex ways, to determine the company’s success.

How Business Models Work

Many new models offer products or services that are better tailored than the dominant models to customers’ individual and immediate needs. Companies often leverage technology to achieve this at competitive prices.

The Six Keys to Success: A More Personalized Product or Service

Many models replace a linear consumption process (in which products are made, used, and then disposed of) with a closed-loop, in which used products are recycled. This shift reduces overall resource costs.

A Closed-Loop Process

Some innovations succeed because they enable the sharing of costly assets—Airbnb allows homeowners to share them with travellers, and Uber shares assets with car owners. Sometimes assets may be shared across a supply chain. The sharing typically happens by means of two-sided online marketplaces that unlock value for both sides: I get money from renting my spare room, and you get a cheaper and perhaps nicer place to stay. Sharing also reduces entry barriers to many industries, because an entrant need not own the assets in question; it can merely act as an intermediary.

 Asset Sharing

Some models charge customers when they use the product or service, rather than requiring them to buy something outright. The customers benefit because they incur costs only as offerings generate value; the company benefits because the number of customers is likely to grow.

Usage-Based Pricing

Some innovations are successful because a new technology improves collaboration with supply chain partners and helps allocate business risks more appropriately, making cost reductions possible.

Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time

How many steps a day do we really need to take? Here are the facts

Can't buy me meaning? Money cuts a quicker path to happiness

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life

CURATED BY

Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time

How many steps a day do we really need to take? Here are the facts

Can't buy me meaning? Money cuts a quicker path to happiness

It's time to Read like a Pro.

The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.