Building Sustainable Habits with Dr. Cobb's Strategy

Building sustainable habits is easier when you understand how to “win the day” both vertically and laterally. Inspired by Dr. Cobb’s Sustenance course in the Z-Health curriculum as well as James Clear’s wonderful book, Atomic Habits, let’s explore how vertical and lateral wins can help you build momentum and consistency in any area of your life, using hiking and business as examples. Cobb’s framework is wonderfully simple yet effective. I can see it working for any are of your life in which you want to build consistency. Interspersed are photos from a fabulous CHS-2 hike I led to Snoqualmie Lake on Tuesday, June 3.

Stunning, pristine Snoqualmie Lake on June 3, 2025. The 16.5-mile hike was long but worth it, and everyone did great. Definitely an elite win in all of our books and a great confidence booster for students in CHS-2.

Understanding Vertical Wins — Small Steps, Accumulated Progress Toward Habit Building

Vertical wins are about scaling your efforts based on time and effort. Dr. Cobb describes these as mini, plus, and elite wins. Each tier matters because it makes progress accessible, regardless of your schedule, experience, goal, or motivation level.

Mini Wins: Think of these as quick 1-2 minute actions that create momentum. I’ve coached 5-minute actions for a number of years; Cobb makes it even easier by using 1-2 minutes. For hiking, that might be as simple as setting out your boots and poles the night before or setting up 3 alarms to make sure you wake up. For fitness, it could be doing a pushup or five bodyweight squats before bed.

A "mini" trail work win as part of my habit to give back on the trail. This deep hole opened up in the talus slope on our hike and I placed two boards over it to make sure nobody else fell in or rolled an ankle. — A “mini” trail work win as part of my habit to give back on the trail. This deep hole opened up in the talus slope on our hike and I placed two boards over it to make sure nobody else fell in or rolled an ankle.

Plus Wins: These 10-20 minute winds build on minis and deepen your commitment to growing a habit. Packing snacks or a lunch, filling water bottles with protein shakes or electrolyte water, or packing your backpack are examples of plus wins for hikers. A 15-minute walk around the block or a short bodyweight workout are perfect for general movement.

**NOTE: I like to refer to these second tier wins as “medium” because “plus” conjures up body shaming for some of my clients. The point is whatever YOU choose to call it evokes a little more time and effort than a mini win but gives you permission to celebrate victory by simply STARTING. Remember we’re after CONSISTENCY to build lasting positive habits.

Elite Wins: These are your full-on efforts—the actual hike, a strength session at the gym, a group class, or a 45-minute bike ride. Even on days when you hit an elite win, earlier mini and medium wins set the stage and help you create a wave of momentum that make it easier to follow through on habits you’re trying to build.

Celebrating our "elite" win with an hour of wading, filtering water, and having snacks at Snoqualmie Lake. Leaving no trace is among one of the most important habits for leaving the outdoors the way you found it or better. — Celebrating our “elite” win with an hour of wading, filtering water, and having snacks at Snoqualmie Lake. Leaving no trace is among one of the most important habits for leaving the outdoors the way you found it or better.

Building New Habits: One Coach’s Week-long Experiment

FROM THE FIELD: I’ve experimented with this concept in two areas of my life over the past week. In short: IT WORKS.

Success in Strength Training

I admit, sometimes life gets so crazy it’s hard to block out a full hour to train. I get engaged in all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking, a cognitive distortion I’ve written about before. Maybe, I thought, this is the way out of that trap.

I came up with three physical goals: My mini? spinning right twice. This helps reset my brain and prepares my body to be in an optimal state to challenge myself. My medium (Cobb’s plus) is to do 20 pushups. Knees count, toes if I’m feeling strong. And my elite is a full-on workout, whatever I have planned for the day, from leading a Mountaineers CHS-2 day hike at 2-3 mph, or a birding walk with my dog Ajax with water and snacks in my pack.

A medium trail goal might be to add a cairn to help future hikers know where to go on a tricky talus slope or river bed crossing.

The outcome? My mini is easy. I actually do it mulitple times a day because it does wonders for my cognition. It leads right into dropping onto a soft surface and banging out pushups. And by then, I’m warming up and feeling like I’m over the hurdle of “stuckedness.” Thanks, Dr. Cobb!

Building into Business

I can hear you now. “Okay, but you COACH physical fitness for a living. That’s not fair.” So let me now share how I’m going to expand Cobb’s model into harder-for-me areas: Business. Technology is my bugaboo, and sometimes Cobb’s 1000+ hours of material intimidates me to the point of doing anything OTHER than what I should. How could it help there?

Medium wins on the trail might include demonstrating and coaching the best way to go across a log crossing. This falls into my habits that include keeping everyone safe on my hikes.

One of my business habits is to build more variety into each client’s workout session. As a mini win, I might simply look at a page of possible variations to set my mind in the right space; my medium could then be selecting variations on a single exercise to demonstrate and execute in a client session. And my elite might be doing a test-retest with each of the day’s clients or — laterally — teaching a new concept on the trail.

Exploring Lateral Wins — More Ways to Win the Day

Wait, what is this lateral thing you just mentioned? Lateral wins give you added flexibility by offering multiple ways to achieve success. They emphasize that it’s not all or nothing, where many of my clients (and yours truly!) struggle. Any action that moves you closer to your goal and helps you build a positive habit counts.

For example, if your objective is to move more, think of going beyond the gym. Tennis, pickleball, biking, hiking, dancing in your living room, or even a quick stretch session all count. The key is recognizing that all movement matters.

Our "warm-up" to Big Creek Falls at a 2.7 mph pace. Smiling and ready for the elevation gain. — Our “warm-up” to Big Creek Falls at a 2.7 mph pace. Smiling and ready for the elevation gain.

For the hiker, a win could be a short neighborhood walk with a pack, a trail stroll with your dog, or a big alpine adventure. All are valid and reinforce your identity as a hiker. And to learn more about building your new identity, see my post about becoming a hike leader in December 2024.

FROM THE FIELD: As I ponder my business habits, lateral explorations might include how I could post Instagram Q&A from short segments filmed while I am on the trail. It could mean making a call to contacting a former client to see if they’re interesetd in sharing their success with the world. Researching apps that would make training progressions smoother for clients is another. The point is to create as many different ways to win as possible. And writing a blog post that teaches others about the concepts? DEFINITELY an “Elite win!”

Combining Vertical and Lateral Wins — Building a Sustainable Habits Framework

The magic happens when you combine vertical and lateral wins into a sustainable habits framework that fits your life.

An unnamed falls, the drainage spot from Snoqualmie Lake.

Imagine a week where Monday is packed with Zoom meetings and you only manage to do a 2-minute stretch (mini vertical win) and walk to your car instead of driving (lateral win). That’s a win. On Saturday, you might have more time, so you lace up your boots for a 3-hour hike (elite vertical win) and join a friend afterward for a yoga session (lateral win).

By using both vertical and lateral wins, you create a menu of options that builds consistency without feeling forced. It’s like having a toolkit to support you on days when motivation is low or life is completely out of control, and also to challenge you on days when you’re ready for more.

FROM THE FIELD: My Saturday mornings involve both. I don’t see clients on weekends, and I hike on Tuesdays, so my business challenge became twofold: 1) reflect on the upcoming week and (mini) write down one client who would require more time and thought, (medium) come up with five questions or two assessments that might be good starting places, and (elite) edit my intake process for a 90-minute session focused on neuroscience-based movement.

Over-under obstacles on the trail past the junction with Nordrum Lake.

Overlapping with contineud education, my mini goal was to assess how the mini, medium, and elite habit worked for me (brilliantly! I track in Excel so it was easy to glance and see accumulating wins). The medium was to reflect on how I might expand it to other areas of habit development, and elite involved writing a blog post about it.

See how it works? The minis lead directly into medium and elite habits. Brilliant!

How to Always Win the Day — Tips to Get Started On New Habits

Here are a few practical ways to start applying these principles:

Set yourself up for mini wins: Choose one small action (like setting out gear, doing a sun salute, or filling a water bottle) that takes less than two minutes but moves you closer to your goal.
Plan for medium wins: Block out 10-20 minutes in your calendar for a walk, a short yoga flow, or preparing healthy snacks.
Embrace lateral wins: Write down 3-5 different ways to move or progress toward your goal. This might include hiking, biking, getting to the climbing gym, strength training, or even dancing.
Celebrate all wins: Small efforts build momentum and consistency. Every win counts toward your bigger goal of sustainable change.
Change as you grow: If you’re constantly doing your minis but nothing else, your medium and elite wins may be too hard. Adjust as you learn. And if you’re constantly hitting your elite wins, try occasionally extending them so you grow beyond your comfort level.

Even coaches need coaches. Mine are Tama Kieves (for spiritual mindset development), the wonderful teachers at Precision Nutrition, and Dr. Eric Cobb of Z-Health.

Strive for Consistency Over Perfection

Sustainable habits are built on consistency, not perfection. By using Dr. Cobb’s vertical and lateral wins, anything in James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, or Tama Kieves’ new book, Learning to Trust Yourself, you can create momentum and keep moving forward, even on challenging days. Remember: every win counts, and progress is progress, no matter how small. Lace up, breathe deep, and win the day—one small step at a time.

If you have examples of mini, medium, and elite goals, please share them in the comments. If you would like assistance applying this principle to your habit development, schedule a free 15-minute consultation with me.