How I achieved 10x success with this habit system
“A book can change your life” is a quote I’ve always thought was an empty cliche. After reading Atomic Habits I created my own “Continuous Improvement System” and I’ve seen how this quote rings true.
For the last 18 years I’ve thought that success was about setting goals and working hard to achieve them: getting into better shape; building a successful business; relaxing more and worrying less; spending more time with friends and family.
Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. I’m now achieving better results than ever before, and I’m not focused on any particular goal. I’m focused on the “Continuous Improvement System”.
These are some examples of what I was able to achieve:
- Lost 23 pounds, achieved my ideal body composition
- Learnt to play the electric bass after 2 years
- Reduced my anxiety levels dramatically
- Started this blog, writing one article per week
The problems with goal-first mentality
1. Goals limit your happiness
When you are obsessing about goals, you are not fully enjoying until you hit them. Plus you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone.
Goal-first mentality is not healthy for your happiness development because it responds to a binary thinking: if goal is achieved then I will be happy — else I can’t relax and be full filled.
Goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness
2. Achieving a goal is temporary
Achieving a goal can feel satisfying… for a while. But once the goal is checked off it creates a vacuum, leaving you hoping for another burst of motivation. You’re left chasing the same outcome because you never changed the system behind it. You treated a symptom without addressing the cause.
If a person accumulates 20 kg of fat in 3 years without changing habits and suddenly sets the goal of losing them, even if they are successful it’s a matter of time until the 20kg are regained.
3. Winners and losers have the same goals
Every tennis player wants to win Roland Garros. Every candidate wants to get the job. And if successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers.
The goal had always been there. It was only when they implemented a system of continuous small improvements that they achieved a different outcome.
4. Goals and long term success don’t get along well
Finally, a goal-oriented mind-set can create a “yo-yo” effect. Many runners train hard for months and as soon as they cross the finish line, they stop training.
When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it? This is why many people find themselves reverting to their old habits after accomplishing a goal.
Goals as a success check of the system health
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying goals are useless. I have my goals for several aspects I’m trying to improve. However, I’ve found that goals are good for checking that the system is working.
Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.
The reasoning why systems win over goals
The concept of the 1% daily improvement over an extended period of time is very powerful: if you can accumulate new tiny improvements every day you can achieve a 37.78 X improvement over the course of a year.
Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day — Jim Rohn
How I validated this change of mindset
The first experiment I did was a weight management system. I’ve practiced competitive sports and I’ve worked out all my life, I don’t have a problem with discipline.
However I couldn’t find a way of losing weight, reaching my ideal body muscle/fat ratio and sustaining it for more than three months. Each time I have set goals and achieved them, I regained all the weight coming back to square one.
A habit system can make you luckier
Of course nobody can deny that good luck and bad luck exist. I personally think that having a good system of habits in place just puts a person in a much better position to expand his/her chances of “attracting good luck”.
For example, regular exercise gets you in better shape, so you’re more likely to “luckily” catch that bus or make it home before it rains. Exercise can also help you stay more focused and energetic throughout the day, giving you a greater chance of completing your tasks and your work successfully.
And when some bad luck comes along, the system helps the person to get over the bad situation and get quickly on its feet.
The score takes care of itself
Bill Walsh took over a San Francisco 49ers team that was at the bottom of the NFL. Within three years, they were Super Bowl champions and a dynasty was born. The 49ers would win three Super Bowls under Walsh.
In his book The Score takes care of itself, Bill Walsh mentions that even though they weren’t winning games yet, the 49ers perception of themselves was beginning to shift during the first couple years of Walsh’s tenure.
- Winners are winners before they win: “The 49ers self-perception was improving; individuals began acting and thinking in a way that reflected pride and professionalism, even as they continued to lose games.”
- The culture precedes results: It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.”
- Build an improvement system for the 80 percent you can control: “I accepted the fact that I couldn’t control that 20 percent of each game. However, the rest of it — 80 percent — could be under my control with comprehensive planning and preparation.”
This article is part of a series
This is part of a series of articles about building a “Continuous Improvement System”: a dedication to making small changes and improvements every day, with the expectation that those small improvements will add up to something significant.
