I have been reading and learning a lot about the process involved with setting and achieving goals, productivity, creativity, unlearning bad habits and learning new habits, and even more on life in general of late. And I wish to use the means of my blog to share with the world my thoughts and a little of want I have been learning from all this.
For today I will be centered on goals in general and how repeated action can help us achieve them
Its really fascinating to know that a lot of us have goals we wish to achieve within a space of time, we draft out plans and strategy towards achieving this goals. Some of the goals we set for our selves include but are not limited to : I want to be a better writer within 3 months, I want to loose 5 pounds by the months end, I want to be a better artist .... the list goes on.
Goals in themselves are not bad but serve as guide (a beacon) to a better life and when we do achieve them we have the most rewarding feeling - feeling of victory, a feeling of success. But often time we fail to achieve them, we fail to accomplish them.
But why is this so?
The reason being simply that we most often start with the wrong step, we focus more on the outcome of the goal and not on the process involved.
The process of achieving goals is a process of repetition
A story is told of a potter who had students under him who were learning the trade. He divided the class into two groups (Group 1 and Group 2). He said that group 1 will be graded solely on quantity of work they produced and Group 2 solely on quality of work they produce.
His instructions were simple: On the day of grading he would judge Group 1 with the amount of pottery they produce - 50 pots being an A, 40 pots being a B, 30 pots being a C and so on, while he would judge Group 2 on the quality of pot they produced and for this reason they were to produce just 1 (the best).
Come the day of grading, Group 1 had the best pots with the highest quality
Reason being that while Group 1 were busy making so many pots and learning from each mistake they made, Group 2 were busy researching and learning about perfection, and in the end what they had to show was a lot of theory on perfection and a poorly made pot.
Start with Repetition first
If you really want to achieve you goals, you need to focus on repetition and not on the outcome attached to accomplishing the goal
If you want to become a better writer instead of taking a month to produce the perfect article, why not, write one article each day, learn from your mistakes, and let your writing improve in the process
If you want to loose weight instead of doing 15 hour workout, why not, do a 1 hour dedicated workout each day
If you want to to become the best artist instead of waiting to have the best inspiration for an artwork, why not, produce one piece of art each day, learn from your mistakes, and watch as your skill improves
In summary when you think about goals, try not to focus on the outcome attached but try to focus more on the repetitive action that leads to achieving that goal. Focus more on the chunk of work that comes before the action, because it is by doing so we achieve even the most difficult goals
2018 