Why Habits Matter More than Goals

Hi! It’s really good to be back writing here again! Thank you so much to everyone who has read posts, downloaded books, registered for courses, and reached out over the past 12 months, I so appreciate it. This time last year, I took my own advice and put this blog in maintenance mode in order to make some meaningful progress with my masters degree in psychology (which I did; one more project to go, then I’m finished!). I have missed writing though, so I’m dipping back in 🙂 Restarting anything after a break can feel kind of awkward, so I’ll just get on with it…

I used to be big on goal setting and I still like to think about my intentions for the upcoming year. Over the last couple of years, however, my focus has shifted away from thinking about goals to achieve and thinking more in terms of progress to make. Life is pretty unpredictable right now and I found myself getting into a pattern of being over-optimistic about my time, setting too many goals, then not feeling great when I didn’t meet many, or any, of them. (As I was writing this, I remembered a post I wrote several years ago about focusing on the process, not the outcome. Apparently I need to learn some lessons over and over again…). In order to break this cycle, I’ve shifted my focus away from creative goals towards creative habits. Because while having a goal can feel expansive, inspiring, and exciting, it’s the habits that will help us achieve those goals.

The Problem with Focusing on Goals

Goals can be helpful. They give us a sense of direction and something to aim towards. Having a sense of trajectory and an end point can be useful when we’re right in the middle of a project.

But goals can also create pressure, overwhelm, and subsequent frustration or creative paralysis. If the end point feels too far away, we might abandon the work in progress, shelve the book, procrastinate on adding more to the canvas, drop a composition mid-way. To add to that, we can become so focused on the outcome, that we end up stifling our sense of joy and fulfillment in our quest to reach it. In the pursuit of reaching milestones and meeting our self-imposed deadlines, we can become disconnected from our sense of experimentation, a productive and necessary (and fun!) part of the creative process.

The Power of Creative Habits

It’s not that goals don’t serve a purpose; they absolutely do. But, somewhat counter-intuitively, when we focus on the habit, we’re more likely to reach our creative goals.

Creative habits build momentum. Small, consistent actions compound over time and snowball into real progress, while staying sustainable. 100 words a day is 3000 words a month. 15 minutes of sketching each day is 7.5 hours of exploring ideas a month, just doing something once per day equates to an extra 30 or 31 times per month of practising that thing. We achieve our big goals from making progress one step at a time, and that happens through habits.

Habits reduce decision fatigue. I truly believe one of the hardest parts of creating anything is getting started and staying started. If we get embroiled in an internal “Should I or shouldn’t I do this today?” debate each day, it gets exhausting. Committing to a habit removes this debate altogether.

Creative habits make a creative life. Your creative work becomes another thing you do like brushing your teeth, drinking coffee in the morning, or having a shower. It’s part of your day, and it’s more likely to be internalised as part of your identity. You’re likely to feel much more like a creative if you’re, well, creating.

Making the shift from Creative Goals to Creative Habits

Here are a few practical steps I’ve found helpful for cultivating creative habits:

1. Start small: define a manageable habit that fits into your current life. If you have a full-time job, family commitments, chronic illness, or other things that make life unpredictable, factor that in. Start with just 10 minutes, five minutes, two minutes each day. Two minutes a day was where I used to ask coaching clients to start. It might not sound like much, but it is extremely effective for overcoming initial resistance and practising the hardest part (sitting down and starting the thing).
2. Try anchoring your habit to an existing routine. This is a tip from BJ Fogg, Stanford researcher and author of Tiny Habits. He suggests taking something you do as part of your routine already (morning coffee, brushing teeth, etc.) and attaching the new habit to that. For example, When I have my morning coffee, I will write five sentences. Straight after I brush my teeth, I will spend 15 minutes with my sketchbook, and so on. The point is to find something that you already do and attach the new habit to that.
3. Track progress: Keep a journal or use a habits app to track your progress. Celebrate consistency and progress, not results.
4. Stop nine times, restart 10: If you miss a day, a week, a month, try not to attach any meaning to it (I’m lazy, unmotivated, not consistent enough to do this). Yes, that’s easier said than done, but I have found that getting mired in self-judgement does not make me feel more motivated to continue—if anything, it’s the opposite. Instead, focus on picking up where you left off and keep going.
5. Reflect and review: After a week or two of trying your new habit, review how it’s going and adjust as necessary.

Over to you:

What small habit can you commit to that will further your creative practice today?

More reading about habits:

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Atomic Habits by James Clear

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Photo by Rachael Gorjestani on Unsplash