No Resolutions, Just Habits

If you want to succeed, keep it simple

It’s that time of year again, and people are excited about changing their life in the New Year¹. Resolutions are being set, and I hope people succeed with their goals.

Recently I was chatting with friends about goal setting and how many didn’t hit their goals for 2022. When I dug into what happened (I don’t view this as a failure, per se, as long as lessons are learned), most of it revolved around either having too many goals or a lack of systems/habits to be consistent toward hitting one’s goals. Especially when everyone around you seems to be “killing it,” it’s easy to feel insecure and frustrated with your situation.

Strange as it sounds, I’m not much of a New Year’s resolution guy (I’m known for being high-output, so this throws people off). My goals are often several years away, so my mind isn’t usually focused on the year in front of me (I have short-term goals too, just to be clear). Second, I learned long ago that hitting your goals - and living a happy life in general - comes from the daily habits you practice. Systems, habits, and “grinding it out” every day are how you get wherever you want. The side benefit of living in terms of habits is you don’t beat yourself up as much. It’s just one foot in front of the other.

Few things in life come easy, and everything takes longer than you think. With New Year's resolutions, it’s just hard to cram a bunch of stuff into a single year without a framework for success. Success is often the result of many years of simply improving yourself and avoiding too many stupid things. Just focus on improving yourself daily, and let the compound interest build on itself. Several years from now, you’ll look back with awe at how much skill, knowledge, and wisdom you’ve accumulated by simply doing the same boring thing over and over. This isn’t sexy advice, but it’s brutally simple and effective.

1. This is a non-data-related post, but the lessons apply to data/tech if you want.