6 Things I Learned from Doing 3 Simple Actions Every Day

I recently completed Jon Acuff’s Full Potential Course (which was absolutely amazing!!!), and as part of the course, we chose 3 small actions (habits) to do every day for the last 90 days of 2021.

Here are the 3 actions I chose:

1. Read 10 pages of a “Success” book. A “Success” book (a term Jon uses) is any nonfiction book that inspires: Personal development/self-help, biography, scripture, autobiography, etc.
2. Write 100 words (I typed in Evernote). I did this as sort of a daily journal, and while it was only 100 words and it only took literally minutes to do, I probably would’ve written zero words of a journal otherwise.
3. Encourage someone once a day.

I purposely chose 1 action (encourage someone once a day) that would be simple and 2 that were more of a stretch. Why? Again, simple is best, and the point behind creating habits is to make them simple enough that you can get a win every day, no matter what.

So…how did it go?

I’m excited to say that I was 90 for 90!!! Of course, accomplishing all 3 actions was harder on some days, but once I got several days of nailing all 3 under my belt, I didn’t want to mess up my streak, which encouraged me to find ways to make these 3 actions a high priority in my life.

What did I learn?

1. Accountability is key.

I already knew this about myself, but I loved checking all 3 actions off every day. When I complete something during the day, if it’s not on my to-do list, I write it down so I can cross it off. Yes, I’m that person.

2. Small things add up.

Reading 10 pages a day in a Success book = 900 pages! NINE HUNDRED!  I actually read more, but 900 is still more than I would’ve read if I’d waited for the “optimal” time to read. And sometimes I didn’t want to stop at 10 pages, so I kept reading. But 10 pages a day was the lower limit for that action.

Writing 100 words a day also = 900 words, although I wrote more probably 99% of the time. Again, if I hadn’t committed to doing this simple action every day, I’d probably have written ZERO words. 900 is way better than zero!

3. Small actions = momentum in other actions.

Simply completing these 3 actions every day spilled over into other areas of my life, and that momentum lead to more and more momentum with other habits I’m working on but that weren’t front and center as one of my 3 daily actions.

4. Creating new habits can be fun + fulfilling!

Since my reading and writing habits have been on my “Habit Creation To-Do List” for a (long) while, actually making progress on creating these habits was fun and SO fulfilling! And as January 1st got closer, I knew I wanted to keep the fun and fulfillment going.

5. Think outside the box.

I tend to be more of an inside the box than outside the box person sometimes (I love a routine!), and while some days were pretty easy, I had to get a bit creative on other days so I didn’t break my streak. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you think outside the box!

6. Doing my daily 3 actions was a blessing above and beyond just creating new habits.

The Full Potential Course happened at the same time I was going through the difficult decision-making process of whether or not to leave the job I’d had for 8 1/2 years, so reading the Success books I felt prompted to read and writing 100 words a day as a journal really helped me work through this decision-making process AND get some clarity on my next season of my work life and some other things. That was a huge blessing! #tender mercy

If you could choose 3 simple actions to do every day, what would they be?

Small actions, done consistently, really do add up!

PS: If you’d like to check out Jon Acuff’s Full Potential Course, or any of his courses (I’ve done all of them, and they are incredible!), be sure to check out his site. His weekly newsletter, “Five Ideas to Shout About,” is the 💣.com too, so head on over to his site to sign up for his weekly newsletter.