Habits and Accomplishment
Sometimes we want to accomplish things. Professional things, personal things, romantic things, spiritual things.
The secret of life is the desire to attain something; the absence of this makes life useless.- Hazrat Inayat Khan
This urge to accomplish is an extension of our evolutionary inheritance. Life progresses, in part, by desire. To participate in desire aligns us with the biological forces that have shaped matter from seemingly inert rock into sophisticated ecosystems, nervous systems, art, technology, and civilizations.
By virtue of the quality and the biological properties of thought, we find ourselves situated at a singular point, at a ganglion which commands the whole fraction of the cosmos that is at present within reach of our experience. - Teilhard de Chardin
Once we take up the cause of pursuing our desire, we settle into the work. Sometimes it’s tedious and sometimes joyous, and with luck, both.
Often our pursuits require the cultivation of new habits.
“Habits are human nature, why not create some that will mint gold.” - Hafiz
When we want to develop habits, it can be helpful to have an approach.
BJ Fogg’s behavioral model is a pretty good place to start. If Fogg doesn’t do it, try Nir Eyal, Charles Duhigg, or James Clear. Fogg’s is just pretty easy to grasp, implement, and iterate upon.
Fogg’s model is based on the formula that all (B)ehavior = (M)otivation + (A)bility + (P)rompt. In short, when a prompt, our ability, and our motivation converge, there is behavior. Period.
When we want to change our behavior, we can experiment by altering the variables in the B=MAP formula.
Prompts: Any alert, reminder, inner activity (e.g., blood sugar level), or sensory cue (smell, sight, touch, taste). By tinkering with the prompts in our life, we can initiate the possibility of behavior change.
Ability: Our raw capacity to do anything. If we can’t do the behavior, we won’t. But more importantly, even if it’s just a little too difficult, we won’t. Product designers make behaviors (e.g., a swipe) so easy that new behaviors quickly become habits. In changing our own behavior, Fogg encourages making our ability to do the desired thing so easy it would be silly not to do it (e.g., flossing one tooth).
Motivation: Our internal drive to do a thing. Fogg acknowledges the role of motivation in behavior but also cautions that “The problem is that motivation is often fickle…” We need some motivation to do a thing, but to get the habit happening, we’re better off focusing on prompts and ability.
That’s the broad strokes of Fogg’s approach; of course, his book (see below) thoroughly unpacks the whole process of creating new behaviors and is well worth the read.
There can be a wonderfully energizing feeling when we realize we have agency in life. We can desire experiences, projects, positions, inner states, and more. And we can also pursue them.
If we’re not sure what to pursue, that discovery process can be our first project and a super fun one!
If you’re up for a deep dive, this trifecta can do life wonders:
Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg (For a detailed exploration of Fogg’s approach.)
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey (Despite being a little cheesy at times, it has lots of sound wisdom.)
Mastery Through Accomplishment, Inayat Khan (For a deeply spiritual take on accomplishment.)
“Get to the end of your race in a straight line, following your own nature and universal Nature, for both of these follow the same way.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (V, 3, 2).
If you have tips or suggestions in the path of accomplishment, leave a comment below or post to Twitter.
Happy accomplishing!!
