mental and physical Dhamma FITDness program, the solution to failed new year's (or anytime) resolution

 FITD = foot in the door technique 

I've been using this technique for decades, it's great.

Why do most new years' resolutions fail? (where people commit to behavioral changes to improve themself in some way for the new year)

Because they challenge themself with something too difficult (for their current ability and energy level).

The more difficult something is,

the more willpower, energy, determination, grit, etc., required to meet the challenge every single day.

Faced with that constant resistance, most people give up after a week or two.

How does the FITD (foot in the door) technique work?

You commit, make a resolution to do something very easy to do every day, (or every hour, every week, etc.).

Once you got your foot in the door, and it becomes a habit,

it becomes part of your lifestyle, part of you, part of your personality.

And because you're doing it every day,

you get better with more practice.

And as you get better, you naturally are stronger and want to challenge your self by pushing it a little farther.

I'll give two examples of how I use this:

Example 1: meditate in sitting posture  20 minutes a day minimum

Everyday, no matter how busy I am, I resolve to do 4 sitting sessions, of 5 minutes each.

20 minutes a day total.

I feel good when I sit, it's always beneficial and conducive to spiritual growth,

and no matter how busy I am I don't want to stop at 5 minutes.

It's hard to meditate any less than 20 or 30 minutes at a time.

So I commit to 20 minutes, but I reality it's extremely hard for me to meditate any less than 2 hours sitting a day, no matter how busy.

I'm using one of Māra's (The Devil) greatest tactics against him!

How often has the Devil talked you into doing something you shouldn't do with FITD?

Just one more piece of chocolate cake?

Just one more round of golf?

Just one more night of partying?

Just one more white lie?

  

Example 2: physical exercise

I used to hate jogging.

When I was as kid, I hated it with a passion, they used to make us run several miles a week in school physical education classes.

It was miserable, pointless, painful.

Then in my 30's, I needed to get better cardiovascular conditioning,

and realized jogging was probably the best way to meet that requirement, 

being free, no equipment, etc.

So I resolved to do 5 minutes a day.

Hated every minute of it, but I committed to it everyday.

I got FITD (foot in the door).

It was only 5 minutes, and it was good for my health, so worth the pain.

As my cardiovascular conditioning got stronger, 

it got less physically painful, then eventually no pain at all, just mentally boring.

But getting physically stronger, then it became easy to increase the time from 5 min. , over the years, to 10-15 min. a day effortlessly.

Then I figured out I can do pāḷi chanting while I was jogging, 

and then there was no pain, and all gain.

No physical pain because I was strong in conditioned, and all gain in mental Dhamma and pāḷi skills from chanting.

I used to hate jogging, 30 years later I don't hate it at all, in fact I love it.

I like it as much as I like jhāna, because I can tap into the same pleasure chemicals (sukha indriya),

the endorphines, the runners high.

Sexual orgasm, eating delicious food, doing yoga stretching at just the right amount of tension,

ASMR, frisson, athlete's "flow", 

it's all the same nervous system getting stimulated as sitting meditation jhāna.

What did you think, that the human body has a separate nervous system with special set of pleasure chemicals that are only reserved for yogis who can enter jhāna?

That would be mighty expensive and inefficient for the body to do.

Conclusion

All of this learning and progress happened because I had the discipline (doesn't take much)

to commit to something very easy to do every day (or some other regular interval).

FITD.

Get your foot in the door.;

As you get stronger, 

you naturally will want to extend your limits and power.

It becomes habit,

lifestyle,

personality,

those powerful good things becomes part of you.

Whether it's a mental Dhamma development,

or transforming unpleasant chores into powerful health and spiritual exercise,

it's easy to do if you use Māra's trick against him.

There's a joy in seeing the bully get bullied,

Māra getting a taste of his own medicine.