How to Get Back on Track After Slipping Up (Habits, Diet, etc.) | Tim Ferriss

- Tim Ferriss answers a question about how to get back on track when one falls off the tracks with a new habit. He thinks it's important to expect to get knocked off track, have a plan, and do less than you think you can handle.

Hi folks, Tim Ferriss here. I'm going to chat for a moment about getting back on track when you fall off the tracks with a new habit. And this is in response to a question of sorts from one of you out there who submitted this ideas on how to get back on track after one strays from a diet, exercise routine, morning ritual, etc. Without a lot of downtime or worse, giving up entirely. Good news. I have a lot of experience falling off track and that's not necessarily a bad thing. So let me first say the most important thing is to expect that you are going to get knocked off track. Whether it is some mistake or slip that can be attributed to you or the world, at some point you will not be able to do X, whatever X is. And I think it's important to number one, expect to fall off track. Expect to miss a session, let's say, and to have a plan for that right, to recognize it as normal and part of life. I think de risks the entire thing. It removes a lot of the severity that's true for learning a language, for instance, because it's not a linear progress. You're gonna say go up and down and have plateaus and then you'll pick up more complex grammar and you'll feel like you're losing it and then you'll hockey stick. This is true for many, many things. Number one, expect it to happen. Have a plan. That's where I'm going to try to be helpful. As far as the plan goes. I would say a few things are very, very helpful for getting back on track and staying on track. Doing anything with a friend, even if it is virtual, holding each other accountable in some fashion. You can put some money on the line, even if it's a dollar or $10. I know a Google engineer at one point who said to a friend they agreed that they would each pay the other a dollar if they missed a workout together. And and it seems ridiculous, but even those minimal stakes help to increase compliance tremendously, right? So think about some form of partnering or accountability. The next thing I'll say is really simple. You could use a start again or just start again meditation. It's very short by Sam Harris, neuroscientist, well known author who has an app called the Waking up app. You can find it certainly online. It's easy. Start again. This really just underscores and guides you through the experience of letting go of something that didn't work. Maybe your day has just gone to shit and it's 1pm and you're like, oh, the whole day is shot. I should just give it up. Or you had five cookies, so you're like, I might as well eat 100 cookies. Whatever it is. In all those cases, you can say, you know what, let's just start again. Let's just start the day again. Let's just start the week again and not bludgeon yourself with self criticism. The last thing I'll say, which is very important for any type of habit formation and adherence to new behaviors, is do less than you think you can handle. If you think it is realistic for you to do 20 minutes a day on the treadmill five days a week, and you've never done that before, or even if you have done it before, go five minutes on the treadmill every other day, you can always add more time. You can always add more repetitions. Make it easy. If you have a pass fail in your mind, make it easy to pass. You can always add more sessions. This is how many people fail really quickly. They overwhelm themselves with too many changes, too many additions. Whether it's with exercise, whether it's with strictness, with diet, whether it's with psychedelics. In all of those cases and many more, do less than you think you can handle and you will be rewarded in the long term.