Sometimes you just need to hang on

When using the systems and habits approach to improvement, we have to learn how to be patient. Improvement isn’t instant. We don’t wake up after one day of work with rewards and accomplishment.

Instead, it is a long, often grueling, process. We need to put in place the right systems and habits and then work those to ingrain them in our lives.

The goal is to achieve lifestyle change. This means that those new behaviors and thoughts permeate throughout our lives.

We can make those solid. We can have them unmovable aspects driving us towards success and happiness. But right now, the unmovable aspects are our old habits, the ones that drove us to where we are currently, not where we want to be.

The technique that I find most helpful in these times is to set the minimum. Setting the minimum means that we set a small amount towards our goal, but we make that absolute. We do this by making sure we do it consistently.

Consistency is important. We must be consistent in our approach so that it starts to form patterns and builds the neural connections in our brain. We want to tailor our responses to cues around us.

This is a natural human process. We already do this. But we do it by following the path of least resistance. We tent to overvalue immediate pleasure and discount future happiness.

By setting the minimum we are starting to build out future happiness. It is long-term, which means you are building a better future, but it might not be comfortable now.

That is why I encourage you to just hang on. Keep going. Get through it. The initial buildup phase is the most challenging and least rewarding.

But hanging on through it means that you will eventually have success. You will start to find the new actions becoming more and more automatic and less forced.

As this happens, you will also start to notice that the results start coming. They are slow at first but then pick up over time. They compound and the more you do it the more success you will get from it.

But early on, none of this is within sight. You have to have some faith. You need to trust yourself and the plans you made.

It will likely take more time than you anticipate. It will feel like it is never going to happen. But hang on. Keep going. Don’t give up.

Often, I have found that the success comes just after the roughest period. This is the period where I feel like I’ve done enough work but still don’t see the results. I want to quit.

I start to second-guess my motives. I doubt my abilities. I even start to get bummed out about all the “wasted” work that I’ve done to this point.

When I’ve felt this way, I’ve noticed that I have to keep going. I have to hang on. Perseverance is necessary at this step. But if I can just hang on long enough, the results arrive.

Sometimes it comes soon after I enter this period and other times this period feels like multiple seasons of life all set back-to-back. But this isn’t the end and pushing through with the right systems and habits will pull me through the dark times to the better ones.

So, keep going. Don’t give up. Just trust the process and make sure to put in the work. Just hang on.