Motivation can be maintained by "taking it easy"

My daughter is taking piano lessons, but
she really hates practicing.

About half a year after she started piano,
she hated practicing so much that
she wouldn't practice at all until the next lesson,
and that state continued.

If you don't practice, naturally you won't be able to play.
Other kids can play.
I can't play.
I hate it even more.

She had fallen into this vicious cycle.

In times like these, it's the parents who get impatient, isn't it? f^^

"This isn't good if it continues like this"
"I have to do something to get her into the habit of practicing!"

I would get all fired up and say,

"Let's practice for 5 minutes a day!"
"Let's practice one song a day!"
"Let's practice every day when you get home!"

and force practice on my child.

It failed miserably (lol).

My daughter hated it so much she started crying, and
I ended up getting frustrated and angry.

There's no way things would go well like this.

Now, what should I do?
If it stays like this, she won't keep it up...

At that time, I received this advice
from her piano teacher.

"Try turning the switch on every day ^^"
"You don't have to play, okay? ^^"

You don't have to practice, so
for now, just turn on the digital piano switch!

That's what she said.

So, my daughter and I went home and tried it right away.

Daughter & I: "Switch---, ON!"

Piano: "Click. Hummm"

......

...

Me: "???

Me: (Is that it?)

Me: (Is this really okay?)

......

...

Plink.

My daughter starts touching the keyboard, just like that.

Plink.

Plink. Plink. Plink.

As if it were a lie that she hated it so much,
my daughter started touching the piano.

And then, she started playing a little bit
of what she had learned that day.

Daddy is overwhelmed with emotion.

The next day, and the day after that,

"Turn on the switch every day"

That was all I did.

But the result that followed was,
"Practice at least one song every day."

So, this time,

to make it a habit, it's best to keep it simple~

I will talk about this theme.

Use the "two-minute rule" to build a habit

Practicing an instrument, dieting, studying... etc.

It is the same for everything, but
to master something,
consistency is essential.

However, not being able to build a habit to keep going
is a problem everyone faces, isn't it? f^^

To create a new habit,
if you start with "actions that can be done within two minutes,"
it becomes easier to make it a habit.

For example, like this.

• Read a book every day -> Read one page of a book

• Go for a run -> Step outside the front door

• Write a diary -> Write just one line in your diary

• Practice guitar -> Plug the guitar into the amp

Depending on the situation, like this,
it might be better to make it even simpler.

• Read a book every day -> Open the book

• Go for a run -> Put on running shoes

• Write a diary -> Open the diary

• Practice an instrument -> Hold the guitar

It is important to "make it easy to start"
to the point where you feel no resistance.

Why?

Starting something requires energy, but
once you have started,
it has the property of being easier to continue.

Therefore, make the first action
a simple one that requires
as little energy as possible.

By doing so, it becomes easier to lead to subsequent actions.

If you put on your running shoes,
you'll want to go outside just like that.
If you step outside the front door,
you'll somehow want to start walking.
Once you start walking,
it becomes easier to go for a run.

It's something like this.

When starting something new,
you have enthusiasm at first,
so you can easily get started.

However, after three days, the enthusiasm cools down and you start slacking off.

By the time a week has passed, not doing it becomes the norm.

After a month, the past when you were doing it is forgotten.

Instead of setting goals that you can't start without summoning the 'will to do it',
it is important to make the entrance so easy that 'anyone can do it'.

For example, suppose you set a goal to 'practice an instrument for 30 minutes every day!'

Something like this won't even last three days.

Then, how about 'holding the instrument every day'?

Even a child can do that ^^

When you hold the instrument, you naturally start playing it.
Before you know it, 5 or 10 minutes have passed.

Even if you only practiced for 5 minutes as a result, that's fine.
Because the important thing is to touch the instrument every day.

If holding the instrument becomes a habit,
practicing for about 5 minutes a day
will also automatically become a habit.

In fact, my daughter
by making it a super simple action of 'turning on the piano switch',
was able to produce
greater results than 'practicing one song a day'.

People act according to the 'law of least effort'

This is the same even when you have set a big goal.

For example, let's consider the goal of 'publishing a book on Kindle'.

This is a very high-difficulty goal, but what if you break down the difficulty?

• Super hard: Write a chapter

• Hard: Write 5,000 characters

• Normal: Write 1,000 characters

• Easy: Write one paragraph

• Piece of cake: Write one line

If you set a goal like 'I want to publish a book on Kindle, so I'll write one chapter a day!', the road to publication suddenly becomes long and painful.

You will need a huge amount of energy to get yourself to say, 'I'm going to write a chapter.'

But what if you say, 'I'm going to write one line a day'?
If you make the initial step easy, doesn't it seem like you could keep it up?

Even if you start with the enthusiasm of 'I'm going to write a chapter,'
it is rare that you will actually finish writing the whole chapter.

However, if you start by saying, 'I'm going to write one line a day,'
it is also rare that you will end up writing only one line.

When there are multiple ways to achieve a goal,
there is a law that says people will choose the method that requires the least effort.
This is called the 'Law of Least Effort'.

This is called the 'Law of Least Effort'.

Whether you write a chapter a day,
write 5,000 characters a day,
or write one line a day,
the final goal is the same.

If the goal is the same,
people will follow the Law of Least Effort,
so you will naturally want to choose 'write one line a day'.

You are more motivated to do things that are simple and easy.

You might want to mock it by saying, 'Just one line a day?!', but
rather than finding it too troublesome to 'write a chapter' and ending up writing nothing at all,
writing even just one line brings you closer to your goal.

It might be a small difference, but
this small difference
will become a big difference when you look back.

If you want to maintain motivation
in order to keep doing things,
it means you should think about 'taking it easy'!

Humans are creatures that want to be lazy and take it easy.

Therefore,making 'things you can do easily' your daily goal
is the best way to maintain motivation.

P.S.

For those who write on platforms like note or blogs, I recommend the goal of "writing one sentence a day as a tweet."

It's like an extension of "I'm going to write one line a day."

If you write one sentence a day as a tweet, you can update your note every day.
If you are on X, you can post every day.

You might intend to write just one sentence, but sometimes you'll end up writing 140 characters.

140 characters might not be enough, and it could turn into two or three posts.

Before you know it, it might even become a full article.

I actually create articles using this method quite often.

I start with the intention of just writing a tweet.

As I flesh out that tweet, it turns into an article.

Even if you stop halfway, the tweet remains, so it is overwhelmingly better than "doing nothing."

It's okay to be slow, but
build a habit of not stopping your progress.

This is what's important ^^