Make Habits, Not Goals

Make habits not goals. Decide who the person you want to be is and make yourself that person. Then keep going. Do this by adopting incredibly simple habits (i.e. walk 5min/ day; no soda after 6pm). Once a habit is made, strengthen that habit. It takes incredible willpower to develop or break habits. Therefore it makes more sense to spend as little willpower as possible in a way that eventually requires you to use willpower to not perform the habit. Forget New Years resolutions, they’re a waste of time and obviously don’t work. Instead do one habit each month for the entire month. Even if you fail, keep at it. Even if it doesn’t become a habit, good; at least you learned something about yourself. And even at a 50% success rate you’re still adopting at least 6 new habits each year that will in turn become fantastic lifestyle changes. Those changes will help you develop new lifestyle changes and a positive feedback loop will be established. Do these as challenges, make it fun, include other people. Never judge yourself or hold yourself up to other’s expectations. You’re already perfect, just the way you are. Self-improvement is all about the journey, not the goal. In fact, there are no goals, there is only the journey, and that journey is life itself. So enjoy it, appreciate the mistakes, celebrate the victories, and allow everything to happen at its own rate.