008 | FORMING HABITS
IT ALL STARTS WITH WHO YOU ARE.
If you know who you are, then what you do is fundamentally conditioned to your identity. As James Clear states in his book Atomic Habits, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Or you can rise to the level of your systems. But the point he was trying to make with that quote, is that goals are nothing without a system to back it. In that book, he shares a very simple illustration that shows three circles. The inner circle is labeled ‘Identity’, the second circle ‘Processes’, and finally ‘Outcomes’ on the outside. When forming new habits or refining old ones, start with the inner circle and work inside out.
The way you identify yourself is the gentle pull you need to know which direction to go. Everything you do should be in alignment with that picture you have of yourself. Your processes are the things you just do every day because that’s who you are. If you are a player pursuing a career in footy, that is your identity. A footballer trains individually with the ball on top of regular team training, but also does the strength, conditioning, mobility, nutritional, tactical, and psychological work required to hit peak performance. It’s non-negotiable. It’s just what footballers do.
When you combine an explicit identity with the processes that come along with it, you get a compounding effort of excellence. Although the outcome doesn’t show up overnight, and that’s where people tend to fall off. Good habits don’t get rewarded until much further into the future, and most people quit before they even have the chance to bear the fruits of their labor. Bad habits typically offer instant gratification, so they offer that quick hit of satisfaction we need to keep going. But it’s the ones who are able to endure the boredom of repeating good habits day in and day out, who win in the end.
Your outcomes are a result of who you are (your identity) and what you do (your processes). If you’re not seeing the end-product you want, remember, there is no such thing as an end-product. Be patient and stay consistent. Re-evaluate your habits if necessary. But don’t stop. Keep moving forward and towards your ideal self.