I have a great habit hack to share with you this week. 

I’ve had joint issues for a while now, especially in my shoulder. I recently started doing egoscue, a method founded by Peter Egoscue who was a postural specialist. This involves doing certain exercises to correct your posture. I had been doing physical therapy and I was getting stronger but it wasn’t helping my shoulder and I was getting really frustrated. 

So I have 15 minutes of egoscue exercises to do every day. And they’re so effective. I can feel them working and it feels really good. I’m committed to doing these exercises.

Now, I just got back from a 3-week trip. When I was travelling there were busy days and it would get to be late, and I’d realize I hadn’t done my egoscue exercises. Sometimes I was tired, maybe even in bed already, and didn’t really want to get back up and do them. So the question is, when and how is it ok to miss a habit like this that you want to stick with? 

What the research shows is that you can miss once and it has no bearing on the effectiveness, longevity, or stickiness of that habit. The key is to not miss twice. Missing once can happen legitimately for any number of reasons. But missing twice in a row is the beginning of a pattern. So, hold onto the mantra: I never miss twice. You’ll cut off at the pass the beginning of the pattern of missing it regularly. 

What’s happened for me over the past month that I’ve been doing these exercises is that I’ve stayed about 90% faithful even though I’ve been traveling. I held onto the mantra that I’d never miss twice. I have missed a day here or there, but never twice in a row. 

This philosophy comes from James Clear. I love his book Atomic Habits (go check it out!). He emphasizes that you’re human and life will happen and you might miss once in a while, but the critical factor is to make sure you don’t miss the second time. 

So never miss twice.