BEHAVIORS OVER OUTCOMES
I don’t hate New Years Resolutions.
I think it’s good for us to take a step back and evaluate how to improve our everyday life.
The main problem I find with resolutions is that they are outcome based.
“I want to lose X amount of pounds this year”
“I want to be more financially responsible”
“I want to take more risks” \
Yet, the best way for us to get to our desired outcome(s), is by establishing good behaviors that stick.
We’ve probably have heard that many times before, but it is true.
We cannot and will not be able to achieve a goal without setting ourselves up with the proper footing to reach the goal.
AKA: We have to do the work.
What we often forget to do is celebrate the behaviors we form along the way to our outcomes.
Outcomes are never guaranteed, but behaviors make our outcomes that much closer to becoming a reality.
For example, say the outcome you’d like to achieve is:
Create a better morning routine.
In order to get to this place, you determine that you need more sleep so you can rise earlier and have more time. However, in order to get more sleep you need to practice adjusting a part of your daily nighttime routine that isn’t “so set”. First you try reading more and then reading less. Or maybe it’s exercising closer to snoozing that makes you sleepy? Perhaps it’s less electronic engagement or late night cups of chamomile tea…
Then, once you start rising earlier and have more time to make breakfast, you realize that your egg game is weak. You need help constructing a better wake up diet so you fiddle with different food recipes and try to find some favorites that stick. You attempt to meal prep and decide that you really don’t like overnight oats, but are determined to stock your fridge with something new every week to keep things fresh.
Now you feel fed and rested every morning, but something is missing. Ah, moments of opening the mind and soul! That’s it! You decide you want to start journaling or mediating or yoga-ing or hitting some power stances before heading out into the world. You try them all and decide that none are for you, but the idea of sitting in silence with your coffee cup for five minutes while looking out the window seems about right.
Oh, and exercise. That thing. You like the benefits of moving early in the morning, but that possibly means cutting some of the peaceful cooking time you’ve established and rearranging the sleep schedule you’ve carefully figured out. So you keep your 5 minutes of coffee piece and change your nice breakfast for something simpler on the road, four out of the seven days a week. Then on exercise days you sometimes opt for a mid afternoon nap if your sleep lacked the night before.
Voila!
After all that, maybe you have a better morning routine.
When you factor in all of the experimentation involved and waves of productivity, I think this made up journey from behaviors to outcome would take about a year. This may sound like a long time, however, each behavior was carefully set into place. Nothing was rushed, everything was thought out, and so the behaviors (and therefore the outcome) would have the capability of really sticking.
Start small this year and write down some behavior goals to start off the new decade.
You might just tackle them quicker than you thought….and be able to keep moving on and up!