I’m rereading Crystal Paine’s excellent new book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode: 9 Simple Strategies to Stress Less, Sleep More, and Restore Your Passion for Life. And like a good little blogger, I’m sharing my thoughts and notes here. The first post in this series is here: SGTSM Part One, which covers chapters 1 and 2.
In chapters 3 & 4, Crystal talks about goal-setting and self-discipline.
I’ve been a goal setter for as long as I can remember, but I often set goals that were not realistic, which led me to get discouraged about the practice. Recently I feel back in like with goals once I understood more about the power of small actions, and how habits serve goals. Now, instead of getting upset with myself when I don’t hit a goal, I instead view it objectively, as data. I try to analyze things instead of beating myself up.
Last month I bit off a bit more than I could chew, and spent the last few weeks feeling overwhelmed. This month I’m determined to make my goals more bite-sized. I did great practicing French nearly every day, but felt disappointed with myself if I didn’t do an entire 30 minute lesson (right now I’m using Pimsleur CDs). It’s quite difficult for me to do an intense 30 minute lesson each day, but I can do that 4 times a week. And on the days I don’t, I can learn ONE new French word, and I can listen to a “Little Pim” French for Kids video on Amazon (these episodes are free for Prime members). Ruby has started asking me to play these for her, which is really cool, because we end up practicing together.
Reading these chapters underscored to me that I’m bad at one of the most important aspects of habit acquisition, and that’s creating REWARDS for myself. Duh. I wrote an ebook about habits and still forget to tie my goals with rewards!
“The worker is worthy of his wages.”
This month when I create my goals, I’m going to tie successful completion of them with a reward. More on that later when I do my monthly goal update post.
The concept of self-discipline, or willpower, is one that conjures up feelings of dread. But as Crystal puts it, self-discipline is not a dirty word. In fact it’s your friend. One of the best tips I got from this section is the reminder to do the least desired thing first. “Eat the frog”, in other words. In creating my schedule for the day, I know I would benefit from getting something I’m dreading out of the way first.
I’ve noticed, for example that some of my habits are now fully ingrained. I haven’t always read my Bible every day, and at one time I really struggled with that, but now it’s truly fixed. Like a cup of coffee, I can’t start my day without it. But some other habits I’m not so consistent with. If I moved those to the top of the list, I would probably become more successful at implementing them.
Have you read Crystal’s book yet? What are your thoughts on goal-setting and self-discipline?
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