Do Something Great in November – The Real Prize of Habit Building

The problem with goals is that sometimes we achieve them. And when we do, we go right back to where we were when we started. And that sucks…

Today is November 22nd, which makes this Day 22 of the “Do Something Great in November” Challenge. How is it going for you?

For me, I am a bit behind the pace to complete 50,000 words on my novel. However, I knew going in that I would be a little behind (my first two weeks in Nov were a bit crazy), so I am confident I will hit the 50,000 word mark by the end of the month. (For you numbers people, I have written 33,306 words so far. If you break 50,000 words down into 30 days then multiply by 18, you’ll see that I should be at 36,667 words. So a little far behind, but not too bad).

However, all this talk about goals and word counts made me realize something very important:

I lost sight of the the real prize

“What do you mean Avish? I thought your goal was to write 50,000 words, and you seem on pace to do that.”

You are correct, I am on pace to write 50,000 words. However, if you recall back to the original post, writing 50,000 words was just one part of the goal. The big picture, the real goal, the objective I had that would lead not just to a large chunk of a novel but one that would also lead to future and ongoing success, wasn’t about writing a certain number of words.

“It wasn’t?”

No. No it wasn’t.

The real goal was to use this opportunity to break down old habits and build some new ones. I would love to have a novel written (or half written, since 50,000 words would be a tiny novel) by the end of the month. But, I would much rather finish the month having developed habits that would allow me to “be a writer.”

However, as the month has gone by and I fell a bit behind, my mind started to obsess over hitting my word count. I started thinking in terms of, “well, I guess better try to block out three hours this weekend to catch up,” and “if I get back on track on Monday, I’ll still hit 50,000 words by the end of the month.”

Those are fine thoughts if all I cared about was word count. However, by putting that much thought into the end goal, I neglected to think about the habit building aspect. Everything became about that number.

This is a problem for one simple, but important reason:

Goals are temporary; habits are forever.

Let me ask you this: if you were in my position, would you rather finish November with 50,000 words done, and then not write again for a year, or would you rather complete only 25,000 words but have developed the habit of writing 1,000 words every day, continuing beyond November, no matter what?

Of course building the habit is better. Writing 50,000 words every November means at the end of the year, you would have written 50,000 words. Writing 1,000 words a day means at the end of the year you would have written 365,000 words. This doesn’t even take into account the momentum and creative flow consistency brings, as well as the greater improvement you get from regularly engaging in an activity.

The best part of habit building is that everything becomes easier. When I was a kid, I used to hate to brush my teeth before going to sleep. But I did it everyday because my parents forced me to. Eventually, it become such a habit that I did it automatically. For the last 20+ years of my life, it has been such a habit that I find it much more uncomfortable not to brush my teeth.

That’s the power of building habits. If writing first thing in the morning became a habit for me like brushing my teeth, then it will eventually become more uncomfortable to not do it than to do it. It just becomes something you do. There’s no struggle. There’s no procrastination. It becomes automatic.

To me, it’s a no brainer:  Build the habits. Let your results flow out of those habits.

The same principle could be applied to many different areas. Health and fitness. Regular reading. Keeping your house or office organized. Connecting with your lived ones. Marketing.

The list goes on and on.

It can be very easy however, to lose sight of the real prize and start focusing on short term goals.

• “Oh, I’ll skip today but double up tomorrow.”
• “Whatever, it’s not that important that I do this now. I can do it next month.”
• “Wow, I hit my goal so I deserve to slack off for a bit.”

The last one is the worst. There’s nothing wrong with giving yourself a break, but if you take a break without having built a habit, what you’re really doing is unconditioning yourself. If you haven’t built a habit, it will be easy to let one day off become two, which will become three. Before you know it, two weeks have gone by and you haven’t gotten back to on track, and now you’re not sure if you ever will (I have gone through this many times with work out routines…)

With the 8 days remaining in the month, I am adopting a new approach:

1. I will continue to shoot for 2,500 words per day. I still want to achieve the “result goal” of 50,000 words.
2. However, I will make damned sure to not a day go by without writing. I will do my best to write at the same time everyday (for me, that is 7AM). I want to build the habit of writing at 7AM everyday.

The key to making that second one work, however, is that I make no minimum on how long I must write or how many words I need to produce. In fact, for the rest of November, I will set my minimum at one sentence.

You read that right, just one sentence.

Of course I will be shooting for 2,500. But there will be some days (like Thanksgiving Day) where it won’t be practical, convenient, or frankly desirable for me to sit and write for 90-120 minutes). Some mornings I may be way ahead in my word count and have a full day of other things to do. On those days, rather than blowing off the writing altogether, I’ll force myself to fire up the computer and write at least one sentence.

Why? Habit building.

I want to condition my mind to write at 7AM, everyday. The length of time will come later. For now, I’m just starting with the first step: building the habit of writing something ever day.

How about you? Are you pursuing a short term goal, or are you building a long term habit? What is your horizon? Is your eye on the right prize?

I hope your November efforts have been going well. Please share your experiences, thoughts, and challenges in the comments below. Also, let everyone know what habits you are committed to building to help you gain long term success!

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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