Your Habits Are Your Strategy

Goal setting has become such an integral part of our culture. It’s in our workplaces, our personal lives, and even in our relationship with our bodies. We’re taught that if we want to prioritize developing sustainable change, we need a metric to measure our success - otherwise we won’t know if we are on target. However, our belief in linear success ignores the road to success including the detours that we may experience along the way. It’s not about setting SMART goals, although those can be important too. It’s about the mind's natural reward system and developing habits that support your overall goals.

Each time you cross something off your to-do list, your brain celebrates by releasing dopamine, the “happy hormone,” that’s connected to positive feelings like pleasure, learning and motivation. Our brain craves dopamine, and so every time you accomplish a goal, however big or small, you want to repeat the action. This results in higher productivity, and prolonged excitement around goals.

Now, let’s look at the reverse. When we set bigger goals, we can struggle to continue once we get past the initial wave of excitement. There are a number of reasons as to why this happens. To begin with, it may be hard to imagine accomplishing something different from how you usually go about your daily routine (and oftentimes we operate in automaticity). This is generally what happens when the initial excitement of a project or goal begins to fade. You may be left with the realization that this goal is more daunting than you initially perceived, and feel less motivated to continue putting in the work.

However, when we change our approach and instead focus on building supportive habits, we’re better able to take incremental steps towards what we hope to accomplish. So, how do you do it? How do you train your brain to focus on the trees, instead of the forest, when it feels like we live in a culture that teaches the reverse? It’s by reminding yourself that if the goal is the forest, your habits are the trees. Growth is a pattern of learning and unlearning. All of us, no matter how accomplished or conscious, picked up unhealthy habits somewhere in our lives, be it from our friends, family, classmates or the influence of our environment. In deciding what sort of habits and practices you’d like to adopt, it’s equally important to analyze your existing behaviors and to take stock of what habits no longer serve you.

One of the best practices for both goal setting and habit building is visualization. Once you have a particular goal in mind, take the time to imagine yourself accomplishing that goal. Then work backwards. The goal is to understand what habits and patterns were needed to support you in accomplishing that goal. Take stock of how you spend your time, the routines and practices that may (or may not) support your intended goal, and who you surround yourself with. Science also shows us that incremental progress and growth are two important ways to stay motivated. Sometimes, we get discouraged with big goals because they seem unattainable, and far off into the future. Ultimately, habits are just as important as your goals.

The incremental changes that happen as a result of changed patterns also indirectly create a contingency plan. If these last two years have taught us anything, it’s that sometimes life just happens. Somedays, you won’t be able to work on your goals, and those days may stretch out into weeks, or months because life happens. And that’s ok. By focusing on developing sustainable habits, you are inevitably striving to accomplish that long-term goal. Think of your habits as your strategy. Each habit you set is creating pathways in your brain and supporting you in creating the changes that you are seeking.

Your goals shouldn’t overwhelm you. Instead of just focusing on a big vision, look at what you can do this week to support the goal you’re aspiring to accomplish. Through consistent habits, and small changes, what may seem impossible becomes more of a possibility. ??