Sure! I did not grow up with a taste for exercise. Between my bookish nature and some terrible gym teachers, I loathed it. But once I moved to San Francisco, everybody was so healthy here! So I decided to try it out.

For quite a while, I'd start on something like running. I'd do it doggedly but in retrospect too intensely. Each time, it was kinda awful. Eventually my motivation would run out and I'd quietly drop it.

But now my approach is that my first goal should be enjoying it. For example, after an injury I stopped all exercise for 6 months or so, and was totally averse to returning to it. Eventually I grabbed my laptop and just went on a long walk, stopping at coffeeshops, restaurants, bookstores, etc every time I felt my enjoyment flagging. After doing that a few Sundays in a row, I shifted away from the stops, making it a pure long walk. Again, focused on enjoying it. Then I added bits of running here and there, upping the challenge until I was back doing a 7.5 mile long run every Sunday.

I apply the same lesson to learning new technologies. Every time I dive into some new language or toolkit, I find it easy to get intimidated. So I structure it as a series of small, rewarding increments. I pay attention to when I'm tired or too frustrated, taking breaks and rethinking my approach so it ends up as a sequence of small rewarding moments.

I think the same lesson lies behind Kanban approaches for teams as well. Small units of value moving quickly though a pipeline become very satisfying. It turns the work week into a series of modest accomplishments that over the long haul add up to real results, building good habits along the way.

Is that helpful?

I'm not the one who asked, but I wanted to thank you for this write up. I find it very helpful and I want to apply a similar approach to exercise. These types of comments are a big part of why I come to HN.