We know we ought to make the change (eat better, exercise, learn our spouse’s preferred way of being addressed), but we just don’t do it. Why?

Change is hard because it’s always easier to stay where you are. That is inertia. The law of inertia states: A body at rest tends to remain at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion. Bodies will continue in their current state, whether at rest or in motion, unless acted on by a greater outside force.
In other words, things don’t change until an outside force comes along. How many times have you done things a certain way just because it’s always been done that way, until one day you are shown a different way to do it, or a different way to think about it.

Sometimes, it is OK to keep doing what you’ve always been doing and it’s all going well. But there are many areas where the effort ought to be exerted – for your sake, for the sake of your relationship, for your future.

If you always do what you’ve been doing in your job, your skillset will eventually become outdated and irrelevant. If you just stay at your 21 year old self, you will be under-evolved. If you don’t work on your relationship, it will become stale.

If you don’t learn to talk and work in the preferred ways of your spouse (and children), then there will be tension. Yes, it easier to communicate in the ways that you have been doing for years. But if it isn’t working well, then it would be silly to continue on in that way just because you are comfortable in that way. Change is necessary here.

But how to do that if inertia is at play and change is hard? Slow and steady. Just do something, however tiny. Just 1%. Once you get the motion started and it will stay in motion.

Simply focus on being 1% better every day; this will quickly lead to meaningful change.