NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS – GOALS VS HABITS
People usually don’t focus on habits because goals sound much sexier in our minds. They feel more motivating in the moment when we think about them. There’s a clear image of a certain result in our head and that gets us excited.
Habits, on the other hand, don’t sound as sexy in our heads. They’re long-term and repetitive, which makes them seem boring. And there’s no clear image one can imagine for “going to the gym every morning for a year” or “only drinking alcohol on weekends.” You don’t get this rush of inspiration imagining yourself eating salad for lunch every day.
Goals are a one-time bargain. They are the spending mindset. “I will spend X amount of energy to receive Y reward.” Habits are an investing mindset. Habits require one to invest one’s efforts for a little while and then take the rewards of that effort and re-invest them in a greater effort to form even better habits.
This is why so many people who lose weight end up gaining it back. They focus on singular goals rather than developing underlying habits. So when their energy and discipline runs out (and it always does because self-discipline is limited) they go back to their original weight.
With habits, on the other hand, there’s no single endpoint that must be reached. The only goal of habits is that the goal is never over, it’s a simple daily or weekly repetition that one does until muscle memory and brain chemistry kick in and you’re now performing the desired action on autopilot. With goals, every day you go back to the gym feels harder. With habits, after a while it feels harder to not go to the gym than it does to go.
THE SIX FUNDAMENTAL DAILY HABITS-
(Adopting Strategies is recommended)
1. Exercise
2- Cooking & eating healthy
3- Meditation
4- Reading
5- Writing
6- Socializing
(Mark Manson, Author)