Goals over Habits – Giving Precedence

 

I was in the midst of some senior secondary students when two of them came running, asking me about courses that one can go for in a particular field ‘because so and so doesn’t have future ambition.’ I then asked who so and so was. It turned out to be the girl who had completed her Qur’aan memorisation and has been on the top of her class for years in a row. Would it then mean that one who has been doing well could be placed at a disadvantage in the coming future? Will those without goals but with the best of habits be placed at risk of being unsuccessful?

Goals are meant to orientate one to find meaning with life. The one who has found meaning then he/she can take pleasure in carrying out his daily activities excellently. We all have goals, great or small, things we would like to achieve within a certain frame whether it’s making six figures at the end of the year, losing weight or writing a bestselling book before the end of the next quarter.

Habits are algorithms operating in the background that power our lives. Good habits help us reach our goals more effectively and efficiently. Bad ones make things harder or prevent success entirely. Habits powerfully influence our automatic behavior. In an award winning author, Octavia Butler’s words, “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable and will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit is persistence in practice,”

The difference between habits and goals is not just semantics. Each requires different forms of action, for example setting a goal to read 20 books by the end of the year or creating a habit of always being with a book.

The problems with goals are:

They have an endpoint causing a tendency of people reverting to their previous state like someone reaching a goal weight and overeating to celebrate or someone who after running a marathon stops exercising completely.

They rely on factors we don’t usually have control over, like falling severely ill while preparing for an exam or an unexpected expense sabotaging a financial goal. Habits are better algorithms and more reliable in getting us to our destination.

Keeping goals in mind and using them to direct our actions demand a lot of thinking and effort in evaluating different options. With habits we already know what to do by default. With goals it can seem like one can always push things further to another day. For example, having the goal of saving more by being disciplined in our spending as opposed to having a habit of investing a thousand naira in halal mutual funds each time we receive our pocket money. Habits, not goals, make otherwise difficult things easy

Goals can make us complacent or reckless. This is because our brains can confuse goal setting with achievement because it feels like an end itself especially when we inform others of it. If these goals are unrealistic they can lead to dangerous or unethical behaviors as we make compromises to meet these stated objectives. Such is the case of young people who have the goals of riding exotic cars, using exotic phones and living exotic lifestyles in little or no time causing them to resolve to ‘ritualism’ and the likes.

“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do),” said Stephen Covey the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habits operate automatically when formed, can mean we get to overshoot our goals, are easy to complete, are for life, can be as small as necessary, and can compound having a wider impact on our lives (keystone habits) changing related areas of our lives. For example someone who wakes up for the night prayers and therefore sleeps earlier, looks forward to each new day and appears more cheerful and so is less likely to get into depression.

I know a certain senior with excellent academic record from primary school. I learnt that he personally would have wanted to study petroleum engineering after secondary school but then the opportunity for studying medicine presented itself and he had grades superb enough in his O levels and A-levels and so he considered the alternative. The rest is history and he has begun his postgraduate on scholarship.

The principles that apply to matters of the hereafter are similar. Allah, The Most Exalted says:Verily man is in loss. Except those who have belief and do righteous good deeds. (Q 103 v 2-3)

Another hadith which can be found in the Sunan of Ibn Mujah talks about performing even little deeds consistently. Abu Huraira reported: Allah’s Messenger (SAW) said“Take up good deeds as much as you are able, for the best deeds are those done regularly even if they are few.”

In an hadith which can be found in Sahih Muslim in The Book of Destiny which talks about what goes on during the development of man in the womb one can see the link between predestination and habit, “…By Him besides whom there is no deity worthy of worship, that one amongst you acts like the people deserving Paradise until between him and Paradise there remains but the distance of a cubit, when suddenly what has been written of Destiny overcomes him and he begins to act like the people of Hell and thus enters Hell…”

While goals rely on extrinsic motivation, habits once formed are automatic. They literally rewire our brains. When seeking to attain success in our lives, rather than concentrating on a specific goal, we would do well to invest our time in forming positive habits.

While goals and habits are two sides of the success coin, good goals provide a sense of direction, and effective habits provide the mental discipline to achieve. Nothing will change our future trajectory like habits. By switching our focus from achieving specific goals to creating positive long-term habits we can make continuous improvement a way of life. Even if we backtrack at times, we’re pointed in the right direction. Repeating habits with consistency can compound the benefits of non-negotiable actions and lead to lofty achievements.

So to attain success in our lives, rather than concentrate on a specific goal, we would do well to invest our time in forming positive habits. “First we make our habits, then our habits make us.” – Charles C. Nobel

Muhammad Oluwatimilehin Saka