“Never miss twice”

This is such a great phrase for building habits. You’re not going to be perfect all the time, but you need consistency to build any habit, achieve any goal, or make any lifestyle change.

Hence, whenever you veer off track on a habit, put all of your focus and energy on not missing twice so you build actual consistency.

James Clear coined this phrase and I heard it on Rich Roll’s podcast interview with him (video and link below). James Clear is a habit guru, who studies and writes about habits and human potential. It’s one of my favorite podcasts, and one I’ll listen to multiple times. I’m now also subscribed to his weekly newsletter.

For me never miss twice is mostly focused on physical health, mental health, and nutrition.

Never miss two days of exercising, never isolate myself from the world two days or two weekends in a row, never splurge on unhealthy meals two days in a row, never eat all the office snacks two days in a row, never eat a full XL pizza and a pint of ice cream all to myself two weeks in a row (yes – I do this periodically), never binge drink two days in a row.

I probably subconsciously do this in the workplace too (never have two unproductive days of work in a row), but want to be more conscious of the rule for productivity habits.

Back in ‘nam I tried to never miss a massage two weeks in a row. (this is in reference to 3 months I spent working for Uber in Vietnam in case you aren’t one of my friends who hears me say “back in ‘nam” all the time)

My goal with this (as with building any habits), is to get to the point where I’m not consciously thinking about it. However, for any major new habit I’m trying to pick up, or break, I’ll put all my energy and focus into never missing twice.

It’s a helpful little saying to remind ourselves not to stress about being a perfectionist.

Here’s a more in-depth article on the topic from James Clear’s website:

Side note, James Clear tweeted this today and I really loved it (I don’t have twitter, but I did look him up on google while writing this blog):