Nothing has a better influence on your future trajectory and goals like habits. Everyone seems to have goals, whether huge or small. These goals force us to act in a specific way so that we can achieve them within a particular time. While you wish to lose fifteen pounds by the time you are thirty years, another person is looking to gain a million dollars by that same age. None of the two examples has an inferior goal. In brief, everyone follows a specific path that leads to his or her dreams and goals. While we are in this path, our habits define whether we make it there or not. Often, coming up with a goal is the first step you need to take.
It is easy to depend on your habit since it is more like a daily routine. For instance, if you have a goal to make lots of money quickly, you will have to fine-tune your habits to achieve this fete. After all, you cannot get to your destination without taking the right steps.
Meanwhile, as a student, your goal may be to achieve academic success, which perhaps cuts across all students. Nonetheless, assignments and, especially essays, make this goal challenging and daunting to students. Luckily, there is help for you as a scholar. You can quickly get professional college essay writers to help.
Good habits will sustain you throughout your career or life goals. Take it as a fuel that drives your turbines; without it, you will not move at all. For starters, here are a few benefits of habits:
Easy to complete
So long as you have a habit formulated inside the brain, you will not find it challenging to accomplish. As much as they are powerful, habits tend to be easy to complete. They help to shape the course of our lives. Pundits argue that it takes the typical person around thirty days practicing to get used to a habit completely.
They are lifelong
Even though we might fail to notice it, our habits are lifelong. Our lives centre on practices and they make about 40% of our daily routine. They are the tiny bits of detail that in turn, make us who we are and shape our character and behaviour.
All of human life is made of habits, whether it is intellectual, emotional or practical. Unless you break your habit for some reason, maybe a resolution or something else, it can be lifelong. Hence, the adage ‘old habits die hard was coined as a result.’
They impact our lives
Creating a habit can influence your life in either positive or negative ways. Some patterns make us shift certain areas of our lives and do different things that we were initially not used to doing. For example, if you decide that your goal is to lose weight in a few months, then this means that you may have to change some of your habits. Some changes you might make include exercising and eating less junk and calories. See, these are things that you did not do initially but are now forced to do them due to the change you want to achieve.
Conversely, those that switch from a harmful habit tend to replace it with a positive habit and, vice versa. Several other ways show how much a pattern can change someone’s life, either positively or negatively. What matters is that you know how you want your habit to transform your life.
They do not have to be huge
Fortunately, habits do not have to be as big as goals. You may have huge goals but can use small and straightforward practices to arrive at your destination. If you are looking to build a particular practice, then it is advisable to start small, as you advance in due process. Massive practices often emanate from tiny practices that we implement daily in our routine. You cannot build a mansion without starting on a sturdy foundation.
For instance, if writing a 50,000 words-book is your goal, then you can make it a habit to write short pieces of say 500 words daily as you slowly move towards the huge target. In summary, start small, and you will achieve great things with your habits.
They define who we are
Even though we are the crafters of our habits, they end up defining who we are in our lives. Someone will know who you are simply through the habits that you are used to daily. Sometimes they even make us behave in a certain way or have a specified type of character.
Well, some people may opt to rely on goals alone, without changing any of their habits. This creates a few problems as we can witness below:
Denies you happiness
When you focus on your target only without taking the time to design your habits, you will always be unhappy until the goal finally comes into place. For instance, if your goal is to reach a million dollars by the end of the year when you work towards it and attain half a million, you will still sulk and be angry because that is not what you wanted to achieve.
On the flip side, when you have such a goal and break it down into habits, you will celebrate the half a million as a step closer to your dream goal.
They are temporary
Unlike habits, which can go for an entire lifetime, goals are not the same. Let us take an example of someone setting a goal to stop taking junk food. When you stop it for a month or two, you will feel happy about it and close that chapter, knowing that you have bagged the goal. However, you might be clueless that it is easier to go back to your old habits because you did not break the goal into habits. You simply created a destination and, on arrival, you will want to go back.
Goals rely on willpower
Will a car that relies on petrol move without fuel? Similarly, you cannot expect a target to fall into place without the willpower. This means that its absence can prove detrimental to the target. When you commit yourself to a specific purpose, then it means that you need to have constant willpower and diligence to see it through to its completion.
Therefore, habits tend to have the upper hand when compared to goals, but in any case, they work hand in hand. For instance, here are some ways in which good habits help you achieve the goals you wish for so severely:
Enables you to go beyond a goal
What could be more satisfying, rewarding and fulfilling than surpassing your goals? A goal is any rough estimate of the future you create in mind. Sometimes it may be lower than your capacity. Hence, you can go beyond. If you say that your goal is to have a million dollars by the end of the year, the chances are that you may even surpass this expectation. Depending on the habits you practice daily, your target may be minute.
They construct your goals
Habits create the foundation on which your goals sit. If you do not have a robust foundation, then the chances are that the building may collapse. This is precisely what you are doing to your dreams when you fail to practice good habits.
Makes dreams more manageable
If someone told you to cut fifty pounds, your immediate reaction would be shock and disbelief. However, looking closely at this target, it is palatable when you divide it into days. Habits make us view our dreams in a more realistic approach and dimension. Your idea or goal may seem vast and unachievable at first. However, thanks to the habits and constant efforts you put in daily, you might realize that it is the most natural thing you are yet to accomplish.
They are easier to accomplish than goals
It is easier to go through your habits than to look at your goal independently and try to reach it. This is because habits are repetitious and done daily. You can create a constant positive vibe or motivation through your daily habits, rather than sitting down and thinking about your goals.
Why a systematic approach to life will work
Now that we have seen the benefits and differences between goals and habits, it is imperative to learn why a systematic approach matters.
We need to change gears from thinking solely about our goals to create long-term and distinct habits for these dreams and goals. This will make your life a consistent improvement, as many successful people argue.
For instance, did you know that the billionaire Warren Buffet regularly reads to increase his knowledge for better investments? This is similar to other public figures like Barrack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr., who was an avid reader.
The world record holder athlete Eliud Kipchoge makes short notes after every training session to catch up on possible improvements and areas that need perfection. In most cases, consistency in your habits creates a path to achieve your goals.
Your goals mostly depend on the level of motivation you get or give yourself. On the other hand, habits tend to fall into place automatically. They change the way we look at things and make us more mindful of what we want to achieve, gradually.
It will help if you employ positive habits to achieve whatever goal you have in life. It makes the journey a lot easier and palatable. The problem is not that the goal is too huge to achieve; the problem comes in when you do not create sustainable habits to reach your goal.
