Did you know that 81% of New Year’s Resolutions fail? That means that you revert back to your old habits 8 out of 10 times. The thing is, change is totally possible for each of us; we just need to know how to do it. And that’s why, in today’s post, we’ll explain to you how and why to design and track daily habits for peak performance!
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Start to design and track daily habits by looking inside and understanding who you want to be and become
As we’ve explained in our last video, most habits are automated behaviors, and we can change them by actively focusing on them. But what can be considered a habit? Daily walks are a habit, but also how you speak, feel, and think.
This means that you can change yourself at a deeper level by consciously designing and tracking your habits. To do that, you need to know your destination and understand what’s required of you to get there. Your habits work as mini elevators, moving you on your journey. To ensure that the elevators are moving you upwards, you must look inside and self-explore to find your desired end result.
You can do this in many ways, for example, through journaling, distancing yourself from others, testing new things, and talking with inspiring people to embrace your thinking processes and explore your capabilities. You need to find a way to find yourself because that enables you to identify your destination.
The importance of consistency
Now that your overall design is ready, you must ensure your actions work collectively to achieve it, and the best way to do that is by tracking your most important habits every single day. Remember, what you focus on expands and defines you. While what you don’t focus on, you just leave it to chance.
You can start in a simple way: just take a piece of paper or an excel sheet. At the top, write down the habits that you want to track daily. While on the left, put the calendar days. And every day, put a 1 on the habits you completed and a 0 on those you did not. It’s that simple yet, ultra-effective.
To better understand the importance that daily tracking has on your future, let’s talk about one of our favorite concepts: the Compound Effect. Someone once said that “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world.” And well, that someone was nothing less than Albert Einstein.
The formula is very simple: Small, Intelligent Choices + Consistency + Time, equals a huge return on investment. It’s important to remember that the compound effect also works in the opposite direction. Small, Poor Choices + Consistency + Time equals a massive loss in momentum.
Design and track daily habits compounded effect on long-term
Your daily choices might look so small to seem irrelevant, but they have a huge impact on your future. To visualize this concept, Darren Hardy, the author of the Compound Effect, gives this example. What would you choose if I could give you $3 million in cash today or a penny that doubles every day for 31 days?
The 1st option seems very tempting, but I’ll give that to you while I take the penny. After 10 days, you will still have $3 million, while I’ll have $5.12. That’s not much at all. Did I make the wrong choice?
After 20 days, I have $5,243. Still, nothing compared to your 3 million. But then, magic happens. On day 31, my compounded penny is now worth almost $11 million.
That’s not magic, though. That’s the power of the compound effect. Even if I’ve known this example for many years, it still blows us away, as it shows what can happen if you consistently do the right things long enough. Consistency. That’s the keyword.
To give a linear example of what a small effort done consistently can lead you towards, let’s imagine that you start a habit of reading only 10 pages of a good book daily. That’s apparently a small effort, but if you do it long enough, let’s say, for 10 years, you will end up having read, on average, 120 books. And you did that only by investing that little time every day. That’s awesome, right?
While if you decide to skip this small effort on the weekends because life gets in the way, you will read 85 books. Still impressive, but that’s 35 books less than if you would have read every day. Can you imagine the extra amount of knowledge that you could have gained from those 35 additional books and their positive impact on your life?
If you apply this concept to every area of your life – and spoiler alert, you should – you will have a deeper understanding of the true impact of your daily actions in your future, and you will make that extra effort to ensure you never lose momentum.
Once you fully grasp this concept, you’ll start being way more conscious of what you do and do not do in your life. As we’ve seen, the key is doing something long enough, so it’s crucial that you design habits that you can track in the long run in a sustainable way.
It’s infinitely better to track just a handful of habits for a year versus tracking 20 habits for 2-3 weeks and then stopping because you can’t sustain it long enough. The secret is to start small, be consistent, and up the game just a little bit when you’re ready. And just as a small drop of water can hollow a stone, given enough time, you will be able to create a new, evolved version of yourself.
Design and track daily habits – the key to peak performance
As Lao Tzu wrote almost 3.000 years ago: “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
Now you know that if you really want to change something or succeed with a new years resolution it requires deeper internal work and commitment to the process. By designing aligned habits and tracking them daily, you will reach your final destination.
If you need help with creating or tracking your habits, and you’re ready to go Beyond Sapiens, we recommend you read more about our Business & Individual Maximization Coaching programs!
