Resilience matters in the systems and habits approach to improvement

Whenever we set out to change the systems and habits in our lives, we will find that consistency is important. We have to keep doing certain things. We can’t just do something once and expect a payoff.

The focus of the systems and habits approach to improvement is to change your recurring thoughts and actions over time. It isn’t to suddenly think differently. It isn't to change by tomorrow. It is to tweak aspects of our routines so that we can make them better in the future.

This means that effort and motivation matter less than most people think. Instead of using willpower and effort to do something once or twice, we learn that we have to keep taking the right steps for much longer periods of time.

Some new habits that I developed took weeks. Some took months. Some took years.

The reason I was able to finally build these new behavior patterns into my normal day was because I kept with it. I didn’t feel motivated all the time. I didn’t use enormous effort. I didn’t rely on willpower to carry me to the finish line.

If you are trying to use this approach to improve some aspect of your life, you will need to become resilient and persistent. This doesn’t mean having superhuman motivation. It means you have to keep working.

This may sound like you need to constantly struggle and push towards the finish line. It may sound like you need grit and toughness.

Some of this might be true but really you need to learn how to keep going. It won’t always feel great to get up early and exercise. If you can keep doing it you will start to build that into your morning routine.

After a while, it will become automatic. It will be easier to keep going than to quit. It will feel natural to follow this new routine.

But that won’t happen for a long time so how do you keep going long enough to allow this new behavior to stick?

The key is to start small. Don’t start with a 2-hour workout every morning. Instead start with a 10-minute workout. Don’t commit to never eating another carb. Instead start learning to build your meals based off of less carbohydrates.

If you want to pay off debt, don’t tell yourself you will never buy another lunch out. Instead start to pack your lunch every night before work so you have it when you get hungry. You will find days that things don’t work, and you grab a quick meal at a fast food place. But you will be building the structures necessary to keep going with this new behavior.

To succeed in the systems and habits approach to improvement you have to be resilient and persistent. You have to keep taking the same steps forward. You have to build out a new routine. You have to follow the same patterns.

One way to make it more likely that you will succeed, is to reduce the amount you do each day. Don’t try for the extreme. Instead, start subtle until the habit starts to form. Then add more and more.

You can get to the extreme levels but trying to get there at the start is a recipe for failure. Instead start small, use resilience and persistence to keep going with that small action. Soon that change will become cemented in your life and you can then add more and work on a new area.