Do it at least for a little while everyday until you master it. Well, almost everyday.

For the past year and a half I’ve been waking up and doing Wim Hof breathing. I do three rounds of normal breathing and then a fourth round with push-ups, and from about August I tried combining yoga for hip mobility. My aim is the full lotus, and I’m not going to stop until I get there.

Likewise, for a bit of fun and something to look forward to after that exercise, we recently bought an espresso machine, and I’ve been trying to perfect my milk steaming skills (the espresso is automatic).

Some days you really don’t feel like getting up and doing the exercise. But there are zero days when you don’t feel like getting up and having a latte. So, if you’ve told yourself you’re going to do the exercise, in my case I gave myself the rule of at least five times a week, it does make it easier to force yourself to go to the same spot, sit down, and just start. With the added benefit of a freshly made latte as an incentive, it’s been working kind of well.

There are two important points I think to take from this. The first is that you should be realistic and not beat yourself up when you can’t or don’t do the exercise every day. Of course every day is better, but if that’s too much pressure that means you give up, everyday is not better.

The second point is, combining the habit with some form of incentive I think is a great way to continue. Only allow yourself the incentive if you’ve done the work. Just my two cents on the daily ritual/ habit.