life updates for anyone who cares

atomic habits and my 'systems'

Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.Goal setting suffers from a serious case of survivorship bias. Weconcentrate on the people who end up winning—the survivors—andmistakenly assume that ambitious goals led to their success whileoverlooking all of the people who had the same objective but didn'tsucceed.Every Olympian wants to win a gold medal. Every candidate wantsto get the job. And if successful and unsuccessful people share thesame goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winnersfrom the losers. It wasn't the goal of winning the Tour de France thatpropelled the British cyclists to the top of the sport. Presumably, theyhad wanted to win the race every year before—just like every otherprofessional team. The goal had always been there. It was only whenthey implemented a system of continuous small improvements thatthey achieved a different outcome

Problem #2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it. If yousummon the energy to tidy up, then you will have a clean room—fornow. But if you maintain the same sloppy, pack-rat habits that led to amessy room in the first place, soon you'll be looking at a new pile ofclutter and hoping for another burst of motivation. You're left chasingthe same outcome because you never changed the system behind it.You treated a symptom without addressing the cause.Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That's thecounterintuitive thing about improvement. We think we need tochange our results, but the results are not the problem. What we reallyneed to change are the systems that cause those results. When yousolve problems at the results level, you only solve them temporarily. Inorder to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systemslevel. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.

Problem #3: Goals restrict your happiness.The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: "Once I reach my goal,then I'll be happy." The problem with a goals-first mentality is thatyou're continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. I'veslipped into this trap so many times I've lost count. For years,happiness was always something for my future self to enjoy. Ipromised myself that once I gained twenty pounds of muscle or aftermy business was featured in the New York Times, then I could finallyrelax.Furthermore, goals create an "either-or" conflict: either you achieveyour goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment.You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This ismisguided. It is unlikely that your actual path through life will matchthe exact journey you had in mind when you set out. It makes no senseto restrict your satisfaction to one scenario when there are many pathsto success.A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall inlove with the process rather than the product, you don't have to wait togive yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytimeyour system is running. And a system can be successful in manydifferent forms, not just the one you first envision.

Problem #4: Goals are at odds with long-term progress.Finally, a goal-oriented mind-set can create a "yo-yo" effect. Manyrunners work hard for months, but as soon as they cross the finish line,they stop training. The race is no longer there to motivate them. Whenall of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left topush you forward after you achieve it? This is why many people findthemselves reverting to their old habits after accomplishing a goal.The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose ofbuilding systems is to continue playing the game. True long-termthinking is goal-less thinking. It's not about any singleaccomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement andcontinuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to theprocess that will determine your progress.

basically ive copy pasted it bc this diary is smth i frequent more often than i ever will a book and it is to remind myself that systems are much more important than 'goals'. seriously, it makes a lot of sense too. why delay your happiness for a 'goal' that is only complicit in your own efforts? why delay emotions that you can choose to feel rn? for eg. i have a 40% exam coming up on the 11th of nov and we have to do two short essays and i have no idea where to start. but regardless, ive gotta start studying for it now, and really understanding the content so i can perform well. 

similarly, for my gym progress, i wasnt able to go the past three days bc i have side effects from the stupid covid vaccine but honestly i wanna wake up on time tomorrow and make it there iA... idk how but im gonna make it work iA. and im gonna take it slow. so far, for my gym and my system for the gym, the plan is leg /booty day 3 times and upper body/15-20 min cardio 2 times and 2 rest days with one cheat day, most probably monday since we're at my parents place. 

anyways, more than that, i gotta start cooking my own food bc honestly i dont like my MIL cooking and i cant just rely on roti and salan for real bootay growth. i wanna make myself a caesar salad twice a week, this week bc ive been craving it like craaaaazy, but idk what else. im content with oats in the morning and i dont want to change it but for lunch and dinner its gonna have to be arranged. even for lunch im willing to have avo toast with eggs and chicken tenders.

but dinner, i wanna make it myself, iA. ill learn cooking during this journey too.

for eg, yesterday i made the best biryani and everyone loved it so much that even the leftovers are finished... so i really gotta make smth atleast 1-2 times a week and make enough of it to last too but im not gonna pressure myself too much.

im so excited to make these changes to my lifestyle tho, but i dont wanna burnout, you cant rely on feelings to keep you going, you really gotta do it for the lifestyle.