Marginal Improvements Compound into Massive Changes

How many of you set large and lofty goals for yourselves that you’re often unable to achieve or that you lose interest in within a few days or weeks after working towards them?

I’ve done this many times in my life and the root of this problem may be that we are working towards our goals and who we want to be in the wrong ways. Recently, I’ve begun reading a book by James Clear entitled Atomic Habits and it’s really a very fascinating read. James claims that it’s most important to first identify who we want to be and then to make very small incremental changes to our routines to slowly grow into that person; it’s not about making big radical changes to get to your goals, it’s about creating systems of habits that increase your efficiency just 1% every single day. For example, if you want to be a writer, rather than creating a goal to write a book in 6 months, you simply start with writing for 15 minutes each day. Forget about the deadline goals entirely and simply improve the systems that will make you into the type of person that does the sorts of things you want to achieve.

As someone who is a bit of a perfectionist, I feel like I really needed to hear all of this because I am very apt to “go big or go home,” meaning I like to make radical changes and often end up breaking because it becomes too overwhelming or else I just don’t try at all. If you’re a bit of a perfectionist, perhaps this is a lesson that might resonate with you as well. Or even if you’re a procrastinator, it’s less intimidating to do a small thing each day like run around the block, than it is to run a marathon in 6 months. Build yourself up slowly.

Another application that I’ve come across which has been wonderful for building up my good habits slowly over time is an app called Fabulous. This app is backed by psychological research to help you build good habits gradually over the course of days and weeks and to help you stick to them. You can create a checklist for a morning routine, workday routine, and bedtime routine which you can go through to make sure you stick to all of those little things you want to remember to do. As someone with ADHD who often gets distracted and just straight-up forgets to do certain things, this application is a lifesaver for me and I really do love it. I believe it is free to try with unlockable premium features for a small monthly fee that I personally find worth the value. It’s one application I expect to keep with me for the long haul.

The application also comes with quick workout routines that you can use, guided meditation etc. So, if you want an application that can do a little bit of everything, then this application might be the one for you.

Now, if it seems like I only wrote this post to flog you on some products, you’d be wrong. I’m not receiving any kickbacks for these shoutouts, simply sharing some information that I feel has provided value to my life and hoping that it might provide value to someone elses. Personally, I’ve decided to make writing a micro-habit again because I’ve left the craft slide for a few years now and I’ll be setting some time aside each day to make sure that I continue to write. I’ve always fancied myself a writer, but when you cease doing something for a while, you stop thinking of yourself that way. You stop being a writer, and instead, you become an ‘aspiring writer’ or something of the sort – this is because we are what we do.

So take some time to do the actions that the type of person you want to be would do. You will eventually become your habits and create the success for yourself that you’ve always dreamed of. The goals aren’t as important as you might think, they simply follow from the persistence and gradual improvements that you compound in whatever area of life that you are hoping to find success in.

I hope you’re all doing well and that this week is going to be a great one for you.

Sending lots of love to you all.

Sincerely,

Mathew Aurelia – The Wolf Boy