The Price We Pay for Our Daily Habits 

Some food for thought…

On any given day we think about 50,000 thoughts. To put that into perspective, there are only 86,400 seconds. 

It doesn't take a mathematician to work out that we think a thought every other second or so. But what's more surprising is that of those 50,000 thoughts, 98% of them are the same thoughts that we thought yesterday. 

98%! 

And if you're now wondering if read that wrong, you didn't. So here it is one more time - 98% of the thoughts that you think today you thought yesterday. 

That means that just 2% of all of our thoughts that happen on a daily basis are new. And as thoughts and emotions go hand-in-hand, it can be hard to change existing patterns that are being fed by existing thoughts. So, our habits - both the good and bad ones - often repeat themselves over and over again. 

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new self." - James Clear 

If we can continuously choose to act in line with the person we're wanting to become, we slowly but surely morph into them. To do that, however, we need support. Our outer environment can be extremely helpful here but it's subject to change so it's a little unpredictable, if not unreliable.

Our internal environment, however, once cultivated and nurtured, is one that can be trusted every time. 

We can get to that point by creating supportive systems that create a structure in which to live. So, let's now take a closer look at how to create such a system. 

Goals vs systems 

Goals ultimately come and go, like the environments we find ourselves in. They're inspiring but by their very nature, they're transient. And that's how they're meant to be. Otherwise, if we achieved our goals and we thought that we had arrived at some endpoint, we would stop trying to better ourselves and become complacent. That's why they are forever being dreamed up, worked on, achieved, re-worked, and then re-imagined. 

Systems, on the other, support long-term visions. For example, when I started writing full-time a year ago, three of my goals were as follows: 

• Publish a blog every day
• Earn $1,000 a month 
• Get 100 new followers a month

As a new writer, this felt pretty ballsy. At the time, I had only published a few (terrible) articles and I had earned a whopping $0.01 and accumulated 1 follower (my mum). So, the thought of publishing an article every day whilst earning $1,000 dollars a month and having more fans than my Mum felt huge, if not unattainable. 

However, I was lucky enough to see early on that without a system in place that supported me to reach these goals, they would always remain just goals. So, that's when I set about creating a system that could give me the best chance of success. 

That system was as follows: 

• Commit to publishing a blog every single day whether it's good, bad, or ugly. 
• Write in the mornings, study successful writers in the afternoon. Here I studied what they were writing about, how they were writing, what tools they were using, how they were formatting their work, what publication(s) they were publishing to, and who they were drawing inspiration from.
• Study the ins and outs of Medium to learn as much as I could. I studied tags, SEO, publications, guidelines, tools, tricks, formatting, ideal title length, ideal blog length, stats, earnings, and all the other pieces of the pie that I could get my hands on. 
• Never stop learning. 
• Have fun. 

Don't underestimate number 5! 

Always remember to have fun! 

If you're enjoying every step of the process it becomes a big adventure. Then things seem to just fall into place effortlessly. 

A strong system might take longer to build but the rewards can support you for weeks, months, and even years to come. 

"If you give a man a fish, you'll feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you'll feed him for a life." - Jesus 

Creating strong systems is like learning how to fish. Once you know how to fish, you'll have a food supply for life. 

"You can be the architect of your habits and not the victim of them" - James Clear

Overriding the temptation of instant gratification

The trouble with instant gratification is that it feels so good. Our bodies even release a small amount of dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin - the "happy" chemicals whenever we do something that we like to keep us doing it. 

And the body loves it! Neurons in the brain even jump, skip, bounce, and bump into one another in a joyful expression. And once these little excitable neurons connect, they'll keep on trying to connect for as long as possible. In short: They'll do anything for their dopamine fix.

The one big problem with instant gratification is that things that are good for us like laughing, dancing, lovemaking, exercise, being in nature, music, and eating chocolate release as much dopamine as cocaine, tobacco, coffee, pornography, sugar, and social media likes. But the body doesn't judge what it's doing, it's only concerned with how it feels. 

On the healthy end of the spectrum, someone living with high levels of dopamine is often a joy to be around. But if someone's happiness depends on something from their environment, they can quickly turn to their addictions to tickle the receptors that make it happen. 

Remember this: What we choose to do on a daily basis ultimately determines who we are.  

Everything sucks, some of the time… 

The tricky and ironic part in all this is that most of the things that are good for us, in the long run, make us feel bad in the beginning whilst most of the things that are bad for us, in the long run, make us feel good. 

Take working out, for example. Initially, it can make my chest burn, my legs ache, and my head pound. If I haven't exercised for a long time, it can be even more intense. But, and it's a big but, after a few months of working out I feel great. There's a marked difference in my mood, my energy levels, and my drive. 

On the flip side of that is eating a doughnut. In the moment it tastes delicious but if I eat two every day for 6 months, suddenly it's not so good for me anymore. Do you see my point? 

When we see that everything sucks at least some of the time, even eating doughnuts! then working towards longer-term systems suddenly becomes far more appealing, even though it might be harder to start with. 

"The cost of your good habits is in the present. The cost of your bad habits is in the future" - James Clear

Closing thoughts 

The trouble with our short-term circuitry is that it's for short-term rewards. But because it then becomes hard-wired into our animal brains, we then chase it over longer periods of time. That's why bad habits are so easily justified but so hard to stop. We're fighting a biochemical reaction that drives us towards the very thing(s) we're trying to avoid.

The good news is that the same biochemical reaction drives us towards all habits. 

So, now I'd like to ask you - what daily habits can you cultivate to support your success? And which ones can you let go of?