How Good and Bad Habits Are The Link Between Where You Are Today and Where You Want to Be
There’s a thin line that stands between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. The hinge that connects the two is the one small habit you repeat every single day. Good habits lead you to where you want to be. Bad habits hold you back from getting there.
Consider this: If you want to know where you’ll be this time next year, look at what you’re doing today.
Good habit: Are you committing to your 30-minute exercise sessions today? If yes, then this time next year, you’ll be in great shape.
Bad habit: Are you skipping your daily 20-minute french lessons today? If yes, then this time next year, you won’t reach the level of fluency you desire.
Good habit: Are you reading every day? If yes, then this time next year, you would’ve read at least two-dozen books and compounded your knowledge.
Bad habit: Are you still eating one chocolate chip cookie per day? If yes, then this time next year, you won’t be in the shape you desire.
Our habits shape our lives—there’s no denying that.
The problem, however, is that humans are:
Naturally forgetful.
Shortsighted.
Even though you know you might regret it tomorrow, it’s hard to say no to that slice of pizza that’s sitting on the table. So you go ahead and grab it. Two days later, you’re at another social gathering, and again, there’s pizza on the table. Will you remember that you already had a slice two days ago? Of course. But the pizza is just too good to resist.
What’s the harm of having another slice or two?
How about smoking? If you’re a “social smoker,” then you probably smoke on nights out with friends. So let’s say you socialize every weekend and you have two cigarettes on Fridays, another two on Saturdays, and you squeeze one on Sunday brunches. So that’s five cigarettes per week—which equates to over 250 cigarettes a year!
You are a smoker; you might not feel it today, but in a year’s time, you definitely will.
Humans are naturally forgetful and often shortsighted, and because of that, we’ve wired ourselves to seek instant gratification at the expense of long-term benefits.
One more slice.
One more cigarette.
Are these habits favorable at this given moment? Yes.
Are they favorable in the long-run? Not at all.
In a recent episode on the Making Sense Podcast with Sam Harris—and as demonstrated in the table below—James Clear explained how “the cost of your good habits is in the present, while the cost of your bad habits is in the future.”
That cookie is delicious and enjoyable the moment you’re having it. But if you keep repeating the habit of eating a cookie every other day—although you might not see the effects now—the ultimate long-term outcome won’t be favorable. You’ll gain weight, feel sluggish, and the sugar intake will harm your health.
That’s why the immediate outcome of bad habits is favorable and “the cost of your bad habits is in the future.”
With good habits, it’s the exact opposite.
The immediate outcome isn’t very favorable. If you make it a habit to exercise at the gym, you’re going to feel sore and your muscles will ache. If you make it a habit to meditate every day, it’s going to be hard because you’re not used to it. In other words, “the cost of your good habits is in the present.”
But if you stick with these habits, the ultimate outcome in a year or two will be favorable—you’ll be in excellent physical shape and you’ll feel calmer and more focused. Their positive impact will unfurl in the future.
It’s this misalignment between the immediate outcome and the long-term outcome that makes it so easy to slip into bad habits.
As James Clear described it:
“That misalignment between the immediate outcome and the ultimate outcome is one reason why it’s so easy to slide into bad habits—because they feel good in the moment— and can be difficult to build good habits because a lot of the returns are delayed. And I think this comes back to evolutionary wiring. From the vast majority of human history, humans have lived in what scientists would call ‘an immediate return environment;’ almost all of your choices had some kind of immediate impact or near-term impact on your life: Do I take shelter from the storm? Do I run away from the lion? Do I forge for berries from that bush for my next meal?”
So where does that leave us?
Well, let’s go back to the statement above: If you want to know where you’ll be this time next year, look at what you’re doing today.
Look at where you are today and then reflect on the results you’re having.
How are you doing health-wise? Are you in good financial standing? What about your creative or career goals? Are you where you thought you’d be?
Then, consider the habits that brought you here.
If you’re not in the physical shape you want to be in, that’s a lagging measure of your bad eating and exercising habits.
If you’re not in the financial health you want to be in, that’s a lagging measure of your bad spending habits.
If you’re not in the space where you want to be as a writer, that’s a lagging measure of your bad writing habits.
“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.”—James Clear, Atomic Habits
Look—time is precious.
Why waste it living a life that doesn’t align with your vision of who you want to become? As we’ve seen above, your good and bad habits form the link between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. Good habits lead you to where you want to be. Bad habits hold you back from getting there.
So the goal is simple: Identify your bad habits and replace them with good habits.
And what’s the first step?
Become aware of what needs to change.
Here’s an exercise that will get you there.
The Exercise: Out With The Bad, In With The Good
Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle.
In the top left column write: “Where I am today.”
In the top right column write: “Where I want to be in a year.”
In the bottom left column, list out the “bad habits that will keep you where you are today.” (Hint: These are your current habits that are holding you back).
In the bottom right column, list out the “good habits that will get you to where you want.”
Here’s what the page should look like before you fill it out:
Here’s what it will look like after you fill it out:
There are three things to note here:
Your goals that will be listed in the top right corner are the ultimate outcomes that will emerge from your daily habits.
Your good habits are there to replace your bad ones. The easiest way to form a new habit is to do the opposite of what you’re doing now.
Notice how all the habits listed are actions that are within your control.
What Matters to You
The best kind of life is a slow, meaningful, and productive life. It’s a life that is driven by intention.
As John C. Maxwell wrote in his book Intentional Living:
“An unintentional life accepts everything and does nothing. An intentional life embraces only the things that will add to the mission of significance.”
So let’s get intentional about how we want to live our life. Let’s get intentional about the energy we bring to it. Let’s get intentional about where it is we’re sailing to and what habits and actions will move us in that desired direction.
Your daily habits and actions are compounding to who you will become tomorrow.
Your good habits get you to where you want to be.
Your bad habits hold you back.
The only thing that binds them together is that they are both within your control.
Raise your self-awareness with the exercise above, identify what needs to be changed, and then follow these 5 steps to build new habits.
In the words of Frederick Matthias Alexander:
“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”