Some time ago, I wrote a thing or two about setting New Year’s goals or resolutions. I even talked about what you should do to prevent your resolutions from failing. I was wrong. Don’t set goals. But hey, if you’ve got something really urgent you want to change about your life or any habit, then New Year’s resolutions might just help get you on your journey.
Nevertheless, there is something more dynamic and efficacious than goals. When you get this thing right, you become set on the path of success forever, and whatever goals you set in the future will be infallible. It’s called a routine or a system, as some prefer to call it.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear
Have you ever heard this quote before? If you haven’t, take some time to ponder on it. Don’t have time to consider it? I’ll explain. No matter how lofty the vision or goal for your life may be, the systems or routines you set up and stick to are the actual determinants of how far you can ever go. What you do consistently determines your life’s outcome after a given period, regardless of the goals you hope to achieve.
Given that routines operate with the principle of sowing and reaping – what you sow consistently into your time shapes what you reap in the form of your identity or results.
Now, here’s why you should set and stick to routines instead of merely setting goals.
Routines Are the Only Way to Make Your Goals SMART
Picture two undergraduate students. One resumes college with a goal to graduate with first class. He even hangs a replica of a first-class certificate by his bedside to constantly remind him of his goal. But that’s all there is to this vision of his.
The other student resumes dedicated to studying for 3 hours every day (this also covers going through his notes every day). Since this second student isn’t a saint, he probably misses a day or two in some weeks. Well, he goes back and probes why he failed to study on those days, and when he eventually tackles the issue, he becomes more consistent. At the end of the first semester, he has mastered studying for 3 hours daily.
At the end of their degree period, who do you think will be more likely to graduate with a first class?
Of course, there is more to graduating with a first class than being able to study for prolonged hours every day. But there is no denying that if we keep those other factors constant, the second student has up to a 90% chance of graduating with a first class, even when he never intended to.
If you’ve attended any session on goal setting, one of the first things you’re told is to make your goals SMART. And right after the session, you rewrite your goals to make them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Errm… After a few days, you either forget that goal or struggle to stick to it. Can you recall how many times you simply set goals and went on to accomplish them the way you wanted and at the time you did?
If your goal is simply a one-time affair or a single event like calling someone or paying a visit, then you probably don’t need a routine. But if the outcome you hope to achieve requires a process or a significant chunk of your time, a routine is the only way to ‘make time’ for achieving that goal.
Routines Deal with Roots Rather than Surficial Outcomes
So, let’s say you intend to stop being late to work or functions. You will be up for an uphill battle if you just hope to simply start being early to work. But when you look forward to achieving this outcome with a routine in mind, you are more likely to get to the root causes of your habitual lateness.
It could be that you spend too much time on other activities during lunch, which causes your tasks to spill beyond closing hours. Since you must submit the task that same day or would rather not add to your workload the following day, you end up spending a few overtime hours completing that task. By the time you hit the road, the gridlock has become so tight that you must spend a few more hours amidst loud car honks and soot before you get home.
Obviously, your job isn’t the only thing you do with your life, and that’s another set of hours to ‘do something’ about those other areas of your life. By the time you’re able to go to bed, you’ll be left with only a few hours to stretch on the mattress before you spring up again for another cycle.
It could also be that your lack of boundaries with your colleague is the reason you always have excess deliverables to meet up with. If you decide to simply write ‘start being early at work’ somewhere as a goal, you may never be able to see other things you can change that will automatically make you ‘start being early at work.’
But when you go the routine way, you are likely to uncover those other factors, which will empower you to deal with the root cause of your lateness. By the time you start to take the necessary actions with those root causes, you will eventually be able to achieve your desired outcome.
Routines Unite You with Your Goals
When it comes to achieving goals and reaching specific outcomes, we often forget to factor in who we are. We are often too focused on checking off lists that we completely neglect who we are on the inside. The thing is, goals become much easier to achieve when we find a way to incorporate them into who we are on the inside, or make an identity out of them. Guess what brings your goals close enough for you to make an identity out of them? Routines, baby!
Check out these two statements:
- I want to read 50 books this year.
- I will read four chapters of a book every day: two first thing in the morning and the other two just before I go to bed.
Which of the above statements will make you more likely to call yourself an ‘avid reader’?
I do know that the second statement would more likely make you read about 1460 chapters (over 70 books with an average of 20 chapters) at the end of the year than the first statement. When you can confidently call yourself an avid reader (because you actually read!) by the end of the year, you will never struggle to read (and reach your reading goals) the following year. Again, don’t set goals.
Routines Stay with You
Have you ever stuck to a routine in your life? How did it feel the first time you tried to ignore that routine?
As a Christian, it is routine for me to attend service every Sunday. I have stuck with this routine for many decades, so much so that I’d always feel different when I get to be anywhere other than a church building on a Sunday morning.
The same thing can happen with your goals if you swap them for routines – steps you get to take regularly towards your desired outcomes. By the time you get used to those routines, it won’t be so easy to stop doing them. Invariably, it won’t be so easy for you to stop achieving your goals.
Conclusion
The next time you are tempted to set a goal for a desired outcome, remember, don’t set goals. Use this template instead, and you will never fail to achieve your desired outcomes:
What are the things I need to do to achieve this goal?
What resources do I need to achieve this outcome?
What small steps can I take daily to get closer to my desired outcome?
How do I get used to this activity?
What accountability system can I implement to see that I do this regularly?
