I read, therefore I quote. I can’t help it. It’s what I do.
“Microactions have become the cornerstone of my own attempts at balance. “Steps” did not always work for me. They seemed too big because they required that I give up control, make a commitment, and risk failure. (These are not my three favorite things to do.) Microactions get around my fears because I stay in control, commit to something so small I could hardly fear it, and I am guaranteed success. I am surprisingly easy to outsmart . . .
. . . Microactions really work. I use them on myself all the time. For example, I want to do two hundred sit-ups a day: one hundred first thing in the morning and one hundred the last thing at night . . . My goal is 1,400 a week. Can I commit to 1,400 sit-ups a week? Not on your life. So I tell myelf I have to do only one sit-up. Who can do only one sit-up? I do one and then when I’m down there I do ninety-nine more. I don’t dislike doing sit-ups, I dislike thinking about making myself do sit-ups. I hate the feeling I must do them and that if I don’t, I am somehow “bad.” So I trick myself into it and get past the barrier.
Do I do 1,400 sit-ups every week? Of course not. Some days I do one sit-up twice a day. Sometimes I do twenty-five. And, I am proud to say, sometimes I do two hundred.”
by Mary LoVerde(copyright 1998, softcover, pages 44-46)