How to Turn Your Goals into Habits

First we make our habits, then our habits make us. It’s such a simple concept, yet it’s something we don’t always do.

I believe that having ONE goal to focus on is much more powerful than having many goals. By putting the belief into practice, I have achieved a lot of personal goals over time. 【小题1】 My answer takes a little explaining. I try to turn my goals into habits, and in doing so, I put my goals on autopilot. Turning a goal into a habit means really focusing on it for at least a month. The more you can focus, the more it’ll be on autopilot. 【小题2】 You’ll still do it, but you only have to use minimal force to maintain it, and you can focus on your next goal or habit.

Take my marathon goal as an example. I was just starting running and had the brilliant idea to run a marathon within a year. So that was my goal. 【小题3】 First, I had to make running a daily habit. Second, I had to report to people in order to have accountability (负责) so that I could not quit easily. I focused on the daily running habit for about a month, and didn’t have any other goals or habits. When the running habit stuck, I started reporting to people I knew and blogging about my running every day.

【小题4】 I could focus on new goals without having to worry about the marathon. I still had to do the running, of course, but it didn’t require constant focus. 【小题5】 I was able to achieve this because, all year long, I had daily running and accountability habits. I put my marathon goal into autopilot, so instead of struggling with it daily for an entire year, I focused on it for one month and was able to accomplish it while focusing on new habits and goals.