Habits Lead to Change
“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” ―Sean Covey
Although we are a few months removed from the new year, I know that I, and many of you, are still actively setting goals for things we want to accomplish throughout the rest of this year, or over the course of the next few years. Goals are an amazing way to keep yourself motivated and to encourage personal growth, and learning how to approach goal setting and accomplishment with a confident strategy is a powerful piece of the puzzle.
Back in January, I was talking to my dad about my goals for the new year, and he challenged me with a powerful question, “What are the daily habits that you would need to put in place to achieve those goals? Identity the things that, if you do them everyday, will just naturally lead to your goals happening, and then focus on that.” I obviously knew that big goals were made up of smaller steps, but I hadn’t considered breaking it down into such small pieces that it would be part of my daily or weekly routine. As the new year started and I applied this strategy to my goals, I noticed how with a little effort each day, I was making progress towards my goals without striving or feeling overworked.
With this idea in mind, I approached the writing team here at Stand Unshaken and asked them to participate in a challenge with me.
Here’s how it went:
We each picked a personal goal that we wanted to work on over the next 30 days (getting in better shape, feeling more at peace, developing better eating habits, etc.) and then we got clear about what needed to happen every day for us to move closer to those goals. What were the daily habits that would lead us towards our goals, and how would our lives change when for 30 days we focused only on incorporating one new habit into our routines.
For the rest of the month, we’ll be sharing our experiences with adding a new habit into our routine, and explaining how that habit influenced our thoughts and actions, as well as how it helped move us towards our goal. I’ve detailed my experience with creating a morning routine to hopefully foster more peace in my life (spoiler: it worked!) but I also wanted to share a few more thoughts about this idea as a whole and how you could apply this to your own life.
If you have any goals or big lifestyle changes (like getting healthier, or becoming more productive) that you are working towards, I want to encourage you to incorporate this concept of creating daily habits into your routine.
Here are a few reasons why focusing on your habits, and not just the end goal, is beneficial.
We like to win!
It is human nature to respond positively to personal success. When we accomplish something we committed to do, our brain releases dopamine or the “feel good” chemical. Once our brain gets that dopamine release, it wants more. Creating habits that help you get that “daily win” (and the dopamine release that comes with it) will help keep you motivated to act on that habit again the next day.
You’re less likely to quit
“The human brain is wired to favor routine over novelty, even if that routine is unhealthy.” (The Science of Accomplishing Your Goals, Psychology Today) There is so much to be said about the power of a routine in helping us accomplish our goals, but one of the biggest ways routine helps with goals is that it eliminates unnecessary work and allows us to focus on what is important. When we train our brains to focus on one small habit each day, it feels more approachable and we’re able to develop the consistency needed to achieve our big goals. Breaking things down into small, approachable chunks keeps us motivated and far less likely to quit because we aren’t making progress or feeling motivated
You still benefit even if you don’t achieve your goal.
Another benefit of using habits to achieve goals, is that even if you don’t achieve your end goal, you likely still benefit in some way! When we are creating healthy, daily habits, we are doing more than just working on a certain goal. Writing every day doesn’t just lead to a completed book, but it also develops discipline and helps you hone your writing practice. Eating a healthy breakfast doesn’t just lead to losing weight, but it also helps you have more energy during your day, and can improve your cooking skills. Making habits part of our goal setting plan often trickles into many areas outside of that one single goal.
So how can you apply this in your own life?
While most of us on the writing team chose more abstract goals (becoming healthier, finding more peace, etc.) this concept works well with abstract and concrete goals. Below I’ve outlined a goal setting (and habit building) process that can be applied to any change or goal you are looking for in your life.
Identify your goal: While SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals are easier to track, it’s ok if your goal is a bit more abstract. The one element to make sure any goal has is some way to measure it so that you can know if you are actually making progress or not. For example, my goal for our month long challenge was to create more peace. While I can’t measure this on a scale, I made a point to note each day how I was feeling. I also paid attention to how well I was sleeping, and how frequently I had overwhelming feelings of stress or fear. This wasn’t a numeric measurement, but it was enough for me to notice a shift over the month.
Determine one action step: An action step is the practical first step you can take towards your goal. For example, if your goal is to run a half marathon, then your first action step might be to run a 5k. An action step is basically a smaller goal that leads up to your bigger goal.
Create a habit that supports that action step and the larger goal. To stick with our half marathon example, the obvious daily habit would be to run for a certain amount of time.
Here’s how I broke this strategy down for my own goal of finding more peace:
The goal: Have more peace throughout my day.
The action step: Invest more in my relationship with God, and lean on Him to give me daily peace.
The habit: Start each morning off with a quiet time that included bible reading, journaling and prayer. To learn more about my experience with this process, come back next week to read my full recap blog!
I hope this concept helps you stay on track towards your goals, or maybe gives you the confidence to finally take action on some new ones (or old ones that you have been putting off!)
Have you ever approached goal setting this way? If so, how did it go? If not, how does this concept make you feel about approaching your goals? Let me know what you think in the comments below!