From Shane Parrish of Farnham Street Blog:

Subject: Goals suck! [Editor's note: Did that get your attention?]

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Let’s talk about goals.

As of today, millions of people are two days in to their New Year’s resolutions. Some of them have already failed and quit (hey, there’s always next year!), but many are defying the odds and staying strong. Maybe they’ll tough it out through the week, or maybe they’ll be among the 8% that make it past the first 90 days (yes, that’s a real statistic.)

Even still, less than 4 in 100 will make any lasting progress on their 2018 resolutions.

I don’t mean to make light of it, but the way that most people go about setting goals is all wrong. The reason over 90% of people don’t accomplish the goals they set for themselves each year is because they are set up to fail before they even start.

But not you. Not this year.

Today, you’ll learn how to get out of your own way so you can make progress that’s meaningful. I promised you that this would be the year everything changes for you, and it all starts here.

Why goals suck

There are a few reasons why goals actually hold you back from reaching your true potential:

Goals have an endpoint. This is why many people revert to their previous state after achieving a certain goal. People run marathons, then stop exercising altogether afterward. Or they make a certain amount of money, then fall into debt soon after. Others reach a goal weight, only to spoil their progress by weeks (or months) of relaxed eating habits.

Goals rely on factors you can’t always control. Sometimes, regardless of effort or intention, reaching your goal just won’t be possible. An injury might derail a fitness goal. An unexpected expense might sabotage a financial goal. A family tragedy might impede a creative-output goal.

When you set a goal, you are attempting to transform what is usually a heuristic process into an algorithmic one.

Goals rely on willpower and self-discipline. This is a biggie. As Charles Duhigg wrote in The Power of Habit: Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, leaving less power for other things.

Keeping a goal in mind and using it to direct your actions requires constant willpower. During times when other parts of your life depletes your supply of willpower, it can be easy to forget your goals. This is one reason we tend to fall off the train so quickly. Reverting to pre-goal behavior is automatic.

When you rely on goals to change behavior, you’re literally at war with yourself.

Goals can make us complacent. Studies have shown that our brains can confuse goal setting with achievement. You read that right. Our brains are so good at simulating our achievement of future events, it can actually undermine our attempts to achieve those goals in reality — after all, it feels like we’ve already achieved them.

What to do instead

Instead of reaching for goals, focus on developing habits.

I know this may seem like a semantics argument. It isn’t. Goals and habits are very different animals. Habits are the processes operating in the background that power your life. If you want to make change that lasts, identify habits that are related to the goal you’d like to achieve.

For example:

• Let’s say you want to learn a new language. You could decide you want to be fluent in six months (goal), or you could commit to 30 minutes of practice each day (habit).

• Maybe you’d like to lose weight. You could set out to lose 30 pounds by the end of the year (goal), or you could decide to go on a jog every morning (habit).

• You want to spend more time with your family. You could plan to spend seven hours a week with them (goal), or you could choose to eat dinner with them each night (habit).

• Or perhaps saving money for retirement is on your list. You could aim to max out your IRA every year (goal), or you could have a set dollar amount automatically come out of your account each month, (habit.)

While goals rely on extrinsic motivation, habits are automatic. They literally rewire our brains. Once we develop a habit, our brains actually change to make the behavior easier to complete.

How to develop positive habits

A common piece of advice for those seeking to build a habit is to start small. Stanford psychologist BJ Fogg recommends “tiny habits,” such as flossing one tooth.

This has two benefits. Let’s use flossing as an example.

1. Flossing one tooth is so simple, that it’s almost impossible not to do. So after you do it, you build momentum and motivation skyrockets. It feels great to be batting 1000!

2. Once you’ve gotten out the floss and flossed the one tooth, it feels silly not to do the rest while you’re at it. You’ve tricked yourself into doing more.

Once the small habit becomes ingrained, the degree of complexity or intensity can be increased. The foundation for success has been laid.

By switching our focus from achieving specific goals to creating positive long-term habits, we can make continuous improvement a way of life. Study the habits of any successful person and you’ll find that their daily habits were the fuel that got them there.

• Warren Buffett reads all day to build the knowledge necessary for his investments.

• Stephen King writes 1000 words a day, 365 days a year (a habit he describes as “a sort of creative sleep”.)

• When Michael Jordan first entered the NBA, he didn’t have a great outside jumpshot. During the off-season for most of his career, he made a rule to shoot several hundred baskets every day. You know how that turned out. He was so confident in his game, that occasionally, he’d shoot free throws with his eyes closed.

These habits, repeated hundreds of times over years, are not incidental. With consistency, the benefits of these non-negotiable actions compound and lead to extraordinary achievements.

What about you?

Now it’s your turn. What do you want to accomplish this year? What habits could you form that would help get you there?

Want to get stronger and do 50 pushups at once? Maybe your rule is one pushup. While you’re down there you can do more, (and likely will) but every day the rule is at least one.

Would you like to read more? Start with a single page a day. After this becomes part of your routine, increase to 5, 10 or 25 pages a day.

Whatever it is, seek to develop the habit first, and the rest will follow.

Cheers,

— Shane

P.S. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about eliminating the distractions that are chewing up so many of your precious hours. I’ll share 5 of my most powerful strategies to make sure you don’t end your day wondering where it all went. Don’t miss it!