Atharv’s Chronicle 14-04-24 : Build Sustainable Systems For Growth!

Hey Friends!

Struggling to keep up with your new hobby?
Have you ever done something straight for 6 months without skipping a day
Yes, Of course
–  We wake up everyday
–  We brush our teeth everyday
–  We sleep everyday
–  We eat everyday

But we find it difficult to
–  Exercise everyday?
–  Learning everyday?
–  Reading Everyday?
–  Or may be practising piano everyday?
or it can be anything which you want to do on a daily basis but can’t do it?

The first set of activities we are able to do because of natural phenomenon & established patterns and the systems are built already around these activities.
–  We have to wake up because we can’t just keep sleeping all the time.
–  We have to brush our teeth, as it starts smelling if we don’t.
–  We sleep as the body needs rest.
–  We eat as the body and mind needs energy to function.

These are all less friction and more of natural phenomenon activities and few actions are performed to prevent or minimise undesirable outcomes.
also called as “Behaviour driven by aversion to negative consequences”

But say You want to start exercising everyday?
You want to start learning/reading everyday?

These are all extrinsic motivation oriented tasks and needs extra push from outside as there are not established patterns yet and it takes time

I have heard people saying it takes 21/48/75 days to form a new habit.
But If you do it for 21 or whatever days – it just doesn’t truly become an irresistible hobby. It only increases the probability of continuing it rather than skipping it easily because our brain loves to follow repetitive patterns as it consumes less energy to perform the already established daily repetitive activities/tasks.

Do you think for which activity you need more energy & motivation?

1. For brushing your teeth everyday! or
2. To start exercising everyday!

In the first activity, you don’t really need to push yourself
but in the second, we need to remember the activity and take explicit action to complete it and it takes energy (yes, brain needs energy to remember the task and function it) Also the friction is less in the first activity as it is already established. 

Whereas in the second activity we need to push ourselves to do that task
it’s very easy to skip the second activity than the first one.

And If you skip a first activity

you know the outcomes of it
– You will have bad breath
– Over the time you will develop tooth decaying
– Your tastebuds fails to identify the true taste of the food
– Overall you will have bad Oral health etc etc

also if you miss the second activity

– You won’t get fitter
– You might gain unnecessary weight
– You might continue to have that knee/back pain
– You will not have active lifestyle etc etc

Generally, though these undesired outcomes seem frightening, they won’t derive enough motivation to take action for many people.
Yes, for few people, it does work and its called as intrinsic motivation and that’s a different category altogether

But if we are failing to take action, it means we have not built a system around these actions.
and it takes time to build a system and make it sustainable.

Let me explain with my journey
Due to a sedentary lifestyle there was no physical activity and I wanted to add fitness into my lifestyle.
– I started with the accountability partner, me and my friend started doing home workouts and we both were accountable to each other by sharing workout updates and photos.

– After a few days when I decided to join the gym, I asked one of my friends who stays near my home if he is interested in joining the Gym, he said okay and we started together. We made sure we stuck to our schedule and we maintained consistency as we were accountable to each other. He became my motivator and my unpaid alarm clock on many days and it became very easy to maintain the streak.

– Now my friend took a break for couple of weeks but still I wanted to continue with my journey.
– So I gathered two more friends who are into fitness (I motivated them to start, haha) and created a WhatsApp group and we three are being accountable to each other now.
We share a post workout picture every day with a good morning text. And if we miss any day, we need to explain why we missed a workout session and we cannot skip it for more than two days straight.
– On many days when I feel like skipping gym session, I see a picture shared by my friend and I immediately get going, because I can’t just give the same reason every time and moreover it’s a human instinct “I want to win, can’t accept the defeat so easily”

• I also use a reward system by gifting myself (workout shoes, gym-wears etc) over the time whenever set milestones/goals are achieved. like an average of 7.5k steps for a whole month, 5 workout sessions in a week etc.
• I also measure my progress on a weekly & monthly basis to evaluate my results and adjust the process accordingly!
• I also share a weekly update on Instagram every week, thereby committing publicly to my goal.

and now because of all these systems, it  not only helps me stay motivated but also makes fitness a seamless part of my lifestyle.

So In order to build a fitness system, I used the following!

1. Found an accountability partner and created a support group
2. Established a consistent workout schedule
3. Joined gym
4. By measuring progress 
5. By using motivational triggers
6. By Implementing a Reward System

Focus on long-term consistency rather than short-term intensity to build sustainable habits.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.
See you next week!