Counterpoint: Building Good Habits Does Not Equal Building Perfect Habits
If there was one quote that sums up the process of building good habits it would be from Marcus Aurelius:
…be satisfied with even the smallest progress
Unquestionably, building good habits is an aspiration we all have. However, sometimes just the thought of waking up every day at 4:00 am, running daily, or eating healthier is stressful. This stress is often the result of the fear of trying something hard and then quitting. The fear of letting yourself down.
As a matter of fact, at one time I had this fear. My fear was that if I was building a good habit and that habit did not become an addiction, I would not have enough will power to sustain it. As I continued to push through this fear even after failing multiple times, I had an “aha” moment. I discovered that my motivation to keep trying came from tracking routine streaks.
Now I don’t worry about letting myself down if I let a good habit slip. Each time a habit streak ends, I have a new goal to beat. As the Marcus Aurelius quote suggests, my focus is on making the smallest amount of progress I can by just beating my streak by 1 day.
Making progress on my streak records is my motivator. This pushes me to keep laying a stronger and stronger foundation for building good habits.
In fact, this mindset of progress over perfection has research to support it. Author Benjamin Spall interviewed 300 high achievers about their morning routines and found not being perfect was part of their success.
Nearly everyone I’ve talked to said they don’t consider one, two or even three missed days of their morning routine a failure, so long as they get back to it as soon as they can,” Spall wrote. “They recognize that sometimes they’ll miss their routine, and that’s okay.
With that said, you won’t ever build good habits if perfection is the goal. Furthermore, you won’t ever build good habits if you beat yourself up when you get off track for a few days. Instead, building good habits is all about your ability to make progress in your process to build good habits.