You’ve tried to build habits before.

Meditate every morning. Exercise three times a week. Read before bed. Journal daily.

They last about two weeks. Maybe three if you’re disciplined.

Then life happens. You miss a day. Then two. Then you “forget” for a week. Then you feel guilty and avoid thinking about it entirely.

Sound familiar?

Why habits fail

Most habit advice focuses on motivation. “Find your why.” “Visualize success.” “Stay positive.”

This is useless.

Motivation is a feeling. Feelings fluctuate. You cannot build lasting behavior on something that changes with your mood.

Habits fail for three reasons:

  1. Too big. “Exercise for an hour” fails. “Do one pushup” doesn’t.
  2. Too vague. “Eat healthier” fails. “Eat a vegetable with dinner” doesn’t.
  3. No system. Relying on memory and willpower fails. Tracking and triggers don’t.

Fix #1: Make it stupidly small

Your habit should be so small it feels embarrassing.

Not “meditate for 20 minutes.” Just “sit on the cushion.” Not “write 1000 words.” Just “open the document.” Not “work out for an hour.” Just “put on gym clothes.”

The goal isn’t the activity. The goal is showing up. Once you show up, momentum usually takes over.

If it doesn’t? You still showed up. The streak continues.

Fix #2: Make it specific

“Read more” is not a habit. It’s a wish.

“Read one page before bed” is a habit. You know exactly what to do and when to do it.

Specificity removes decision-making. Decision-making causes procrastination. Eliminate it.

Fix #3: Track with streaks

Humans are loss-averse. We hate losing things more than we enjoy gaining them.

A streak exploits this. Once you have a 15-day streak, you really don’t want to break it. The streak itself becomes motivation.

This is why Jerry Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” method works. It’s not about the activity — it’s about maintaining the streak.

Fix #4: Never miss twice

You will miss days. Life happens.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s recovery.

Miss one day? Fine. Get back on track immediately. Miss two days? The habit starts dying. Miss three? You’re starting over.

“Never miss twice” is a rule that acknowledges reality while preventing total collapse.

Fix #5: Stack habits

New habits are hard to remember. Existing habits are automatic.

Attach new habits to existing ones:

  • “After I pour my coffee, I will write in my journal.”
  • “After I brush my teeth, I will do one minute of stretching.”
  • “After I sit down at my desk, I will set my focus timer.”

The existing habit becomes a trigger. You don’t have to remember anything — the trigger reminds you.

The real secret

Most people try to change everything at once.

New year, new me. Wake up earlier. Exercise daily. Eat clean. Meditate. Journal. Read. Learn a language. Call mom more.

It all fails by February.

The people who actually build habits focus on one thing at a time. They make it small. They track it. They don’t miss twice.

Boring? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.

The tool

You don’t need a complex habit tracker with 50 features.

You need something that does one thing: track your streaks.

I built SimpleStreaks for this. Add a habit. Check it off each day. Watch your streak grow. That’s it.

No gamification. No social features. No 47-step setup process.

Just you and your streak.

The chain doesn’t break itself.

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— Dolce