The Truth About Streaks: They Are Not Enough!

I am your average person when it comes to failed resolutions, habits that failed to stick, and projects that were started with great fanfare but stopped nowhere near the finish line. What probably makes me above average is that in spite of the beating my ego takes with each failure, I try again. Before I try again, I look for research-backed insights to improve my chances of success. 

BJ Fogg's book titled "Tiny Habits - The small changes that change everything" is filled with such insights. The key insight, to start tiny, is something that had eluded me. In the past, every time I tried to start something, it was the opposite of tiny. I always tried to bite off more than I could chew. 

Fogg suggests that these tiny habits will take a life of their own, and you will soon make the big changes you intended to make in the first place, as long as you do it regularly. On some level, I bought into the idea that if I maintain my streak of my tiny habit, I will achieve the results I wanted. Clearly, there are lots of people like me (the very definition of average) which means that the world is filled with habit trackers of all kinds to help us maintain our streaks. 

Here's what I realized:

1. I was more focused on keeping my streak than on real improvement. 
2. I kept my habits small - sometimes too small - just to avoid breaking the streak. 

After just a few weeks in Spain, I understood close to 50% of all conversations, and I already knew basic greetings and phrases! Six months of Duolingo, and I was nowhere close. Convinced by the tiny argument, I would do five minutes of Duolingo right before bed. Often, exhausted or unwilling to exert my brain, I would revise easy modules just to keep the streak going. All said and done, 229 days of Duolingo, and I still could not understand or speak Spanish any better. 

Streaks are great for consistency, but without the right strategies, they can become a distraction from real progress.