Habits Serve Goals

Note: This post is part of a 31 day treatise on habits. For the entire list of posts, go here: 31 Days of Habits

It’s funny how you can struggle with an idea, only to have someone else come along and succinctly solve it for you. That’s sort of what happened to me when I wrote the post that habits are better than goals. I actually wrote that sentiment years ago, on my other blog, and re-published it here. But in a sense I am still struggling with the question.

When I tweeted the link to this post, a man who, it turns out, is an expert on habits, tweeted me this:

@carrielee habits SERVE goals…

— The Habit Factor® (@TheHabitFactor) October 10, 2013

Well… exactly.

I didn’t mean to give the impression that I wasn’t a fan of goals in that post. I am. I have several goals right now. I shared that I have a goal of writing 12 ebooks in a year. I have a goal to learn French. (And a goal to visit France in a couple of years.)  I have a goal to help my husband pay his debts. Etc.

And it isn’t that I’ve been totally ineffectual in meeting my goals in the past, because I have. I’ve had goals of experiencing natural childbirth and homebirth, and I’ve done those things several times. (I’ve lost the weight after having those babies, too.) I’ve had the goal of paying off my debt, and I did that. I had a goal to hit full-time money with my online business, and I did that too. I could name many more things.

What I’m still struggling with is this: Why are some goals/habits much harder to hit than others?

Why is it EASY and FUN for me to blog every day, but hard for me to remember to read my Bible (something I actually value far more)? Why is is easy for me to get up early in the morning, but hard to consistently wash my face and apply moisturizer at night? Why are my countertops always clean, but I struggle to remember to clean the stovetop?

And why have income goals always been so difficult for me to obtain? It’s very easy for me to hit my word count goal, or productivity goal, but income goals continue to elude me.

I’m still working on this one.

In the meantime, I ordered that tweeter’s book, The Habit Factor. I’m anxious to read it. After perusing the author’s website I’ve been impressed a lot by what he offers there.

The Habit Factor: An Innovative Method to Align Habits with Goals to Achieve Success

Tell me what you think about the intersection of habits and goals…