Creating the keys to unlock success

As a growth oriented human living in today’s modern world, I have to confess it is difficult for me at times to feel as though I’m making forward progress on my goals. I get mired in the day to day dreariness of a life full of so many potential distractions from my purpose. It’s easy for me to fall into old ways, resorting to destructive and unproductive habits.

Facebook updates. Tweets. Emails. Snapchats. Tik Tok reels. These and many other potential distractions make it easy to sacrifice daily progress toward my goals on the altar of distraction with just. a few dopamine-seeking clicks.

Habits: the Harsh Truth

Here’s the deal. Whether you’re focused on goals or a complete sloth, soaking up energy from the planet and producing zilch in return you still have habits. Everyone does. And they are usually pretty ingrained in our life.

Whether you choose to bounce out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off or hit the snooze button 17 times, that is your habit. Choose to prep your food for the week and set out your workout clothes for morning or grab whatever food is quick, convenient and decidedly unhealthy? Yep. Habits.

What is a Habit?

Habits are simply the things we do repeatedly. They are the things we do, whether consciously or subconsciously, during the course of our day.

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while… you don’t do things right once in a while… you do them right all the time. Winning is habit.

Vince Lombardi

At the risk of angering Vince Lombardi, I’ll add that winning is the disciplined execution of good habits. Training harder. Studying longer. Doing the right things in solitude earn your winning in public.

What About Bad Habits?

Habits can be good or bad. Good habits propel us toward a desired outcome, racking up small wins over time. Bad habits may leave us languishing in stagnation as we make little if any progress. And even worse, some habits may move us further away from our goals. Let’s say you want to get fit. You’ve built habits and systems to exercise and monitor your food intake. Staying disciplined with those good habits will not outweigh the bad habit of smoking cigarettes, however. Eventually the habit of smoking will erase the gains you have made staying disciplined in the execution of your good habits and may adversely affect your overall health, leaving you worse off than you were.

In his masterpiece Atomic Habits, author James Clear makes the case that we should focus on the systems we build into our daily lives and the habits they are comprised of. Even though many of us have goals our progress comes by what we do, not what we want to have.

Every Olympian wants to win a gold medal. Every candidate wants the job…It wasn’t the goal of winning the Tour de France that propelled British cyclists to the top of the sport. The goal had always been there. It was only when they implemented a system of continuous small improvements that they achieved a different outcome.

James Clear, Atomic Habits

It makes sense, right? Everyone had the goal of winning, but the team with the best habits to prepare came out on top.

When I was a kid, I always loved the Rocky movies, especially the training scenes. Rocky Balboa had the same goal as every single one of his opponents – they all wanted to win the fight. Through a combination of heart and habit (training in the gym,) Rocky always seemed to come out on top of seemingly impossible situations.

While you may not be battling Ivan Drago or Apollo Creed, your goals will benefit from the same disciplined structured training habits.

Work the Process

Whatever we’re trying to accomplish, we need to build a system of habits to get us there. We also need to think about our identity. If I want to be a writer, I need to be a writer. Which means I need to write. As simple as it sounds, it seems we often complicate this.

The lies we tell ourselves: I’ll start writing when I have more time. I’ll work on getting out of debt when I get that raise. I’ll focus on my marriage when I’m not so busy.

No, you won’t.

You won’t do any of those things until you work the process. Until you become what you say you want to be. Want to be a writer? Write. Be debt free? Pay off your debt. Have a great marriage? Friendships?

Whatever it is you want, you can and must simply start doing the things you need to do to have it. And that’s where habits come in. A daily habit focuses you on doing the things you need to do to accomplish the things you want.

Building Success, One Habit at a Time

James Clear also speaks about the ability of habits to compound for both positive and negative effects. As you layer habits on top of other habits, you build success. Keeping your word to yourself by doing what you said you would do not only progresses you towards your goal, it also helps you build up your self confidence by proving to yourself you will do what you say.

As you engage in bad habits, though, the opposite effect will happen. One bad habit often leads to another.

Let’s say you’ve been disciplined with a diet and exercise routine for a few weeks. While you’re at a party with some friends, and you give in and drink too much. The more you drink, the more you snack. Now, you’re off your diet and headed for a hangover that will make it easy to justify skipping the gym in the morning. One bad habit’s effects have compounded into additional bad habits.

Creating Systems Built on Positive Habits

How do you build a new system of positive habits? The answer is simple, but not easy. Do the new habits you want to implement. Complete them with relentless discipline and they will become ingrained over time.

If you always read when you first wake up, for example, your brain will eventually begin to expect a book in your hands first thing in the morning, and in turn, you will find it easier to read every morning when you have proven to yourself that you will read every morning. When we can trust that we mean it when we say we will do something, it becomes easier to do the thing. Habits over time build that trust in ourselves.

Setting Yourself up for Success

When you’re starting to build new habits, it’s important to make it easy to succeed and difficult to fail at them. If you’re determined you’re going to the gym in the morning, set out your clothes the night before. Pack your food. Prep your coffee. Whatever you can do to make it easy to complete the habit will help.

As I mentioned in my article Achieve Your Goals With These Useful Tactics, I use HabitBull to track my daily habits and ensure I’m on track. There are several other good habit trackers available for both Android and Apple. Whatever you choose, make it a habit (see what I did there…) to use it every day.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re crushing your goals today!