The Best Minute: Habits > goals, busyness, and how to grow
1 IDEA FROM ME
When trying to create a new discipline in your life, think in terms of daily or weekly practices, not goals.
If you want to read more books, don’t think, “I want to read 30 books this year.” Think, “I want to read 30 minutes a day.”
If you want to learn how to code and build a website from scratch, don’t think, “I’m going to build a website in 3 months.” Think, “I am going to take X class and do 4 hours of study, work, and/or training a week.”
If you want to learn how to take better pictures of nature, don’t think, “I’m going increase the number of likes of my pictures by 10X.” Think, “I am going to spend 15 minutes a day watching YouTube videos on photography, and then spend 10 minutes taking pictures.”
The problem with setting goals is that you can’t measure whether or not you are successful until the end. And the further away your goal is (i.e. something you want to accomplish in a year) the longer you have to wait until you feel any sort of accomplishment; if you even hit your goal at all.
What’s worse, we feel a lot of resistance to course-correct a goal. So instead of altering our goal that was perhaps too ambitious, we simply give up on it completely. It is much easier to alter our daily or weekly practices.
If you find 30 minutes a day of reading isn’t manageable. Read for 20.
If you find 4 hours a week of coding work is too much. Code for 2.
If you find 25 minutes a day of photography training isn’t enough because of how much you enjoy it. Train for 3.
Goals are not wrong, but before you create a goal, create a habit. If you don’t have the habit to sustain you, you won’t hit your goal.
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I. Debbie Millman on busyness:
“Busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is just shorthand for the thing being “not important enough” or “not a priority.” Busy is not a badge. You don’t find the time to make things, you make the time to do things.”
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II. Alain do Botton on how you know if you are growing:
“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.”
THIS WEEK ON THE CHURCH LEADERSHIP PODCAST
Ryan Albaugh talks about leading a house church network, what you need on your church website, and building community in your church
Click here to listen to the podcast on your favorite app and get the show notes for this episode.
1 Resource I Enjoyed This Week
Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes.
This book was a fascinating read on what the science says actually causes weight gain, and it isn’t at all what we popularly think of today. It’s not due to overrating or consuming more calories than you burn. If you have struggled to lose weight in the past, or simply want to learn about how to stay healthy and lean, this book is for you.
1 INTERESTING FACT
The gap between conversation responses typically lasts 200 milliseconds.
While that's an average, it's also nearly universal. In most languages—including sign language—the pause between when we speak and when the person we're talking to takes their turn keeps to a familiar pattern. Stephen Levinson from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics told The Atlantic that the gap is "the minimum human response time to anything," including when runners react to a starting pistol.
Source: Best Life
1 QUESTION TO LEAVE YOU WITH
Is my problem due to a lack of effort or an ineffective strategy?
P.S. Cheese lovers.
