Making Goals Habits

Some people make pursuing your dreams sound so easy. It does seem simple enough. After all, you have a goal, you are passionate and you set your mind to do it. What else is there to it?

A bit of an extra push might help. Top motivational experts say that shove might come from making your goals into habits. In fact, author Charles C. Noble once said, “First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”

When author Leo Babauta wrote his Ultimate Guide to Motivation, he found many people commenting on his idea that people should focus on one goal rather than many goals at a time. Babauta says that once he has really focused on a goal, he can put them on “autopilot,” meaning that the goal has become a habit, or something that he does on a regular basis without thinking.

For an example, when he started training for a marathon, he broke his goal down into two habits. First, he made running a daily habit. Second, he checked in with friends and family who would hold him accountable to sticking with his running habit.

Babauta says it took him about a month to set his running goals into place, but once he did his goal became his primary habit. Other goals were sent to the backburner, and he was able to complete a marathon. He says you can apply these principles to any goal, including debt reduction, weight loss and getting organized.

We want to know: Babauta recommends clearly writing down your goals, thinking about them, assigning actions to accomplish them, and so forth. What rules do you stick to in order to accomplish your goals? [Guideposts]