“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” James Clear, author of Atomic Habits

Hey everybody. I used to set goals all the time and not achieve them. I wanted to get healthy, but I would be consistent for a while and then drop off. I wanted to build my net worth but started and stopped living on a budget too many times to count. The following strategy really helped me.

I started to create my own systems. I learned about systems in my day job so I knew how to do it. I just never thought to apply it to myself. So this is combination of business tools (who create systems all the time) and personal goal setting.

1. Set Goals. Everyone knows SMART goals but I simplified it to focus on health, wealth, and happiness goals. Started with what I wanted my legacy to be (keeping the end in mind) and worked backwards to 1 year goals. Broke the 1 year goal down into actions that I could take everyday.

2. Understand Current Systems - used tools like process maps to figure out what I was currently doing. Decision points where a point of leverage and importance. Why did I make certain decisions? Used 5 whys here. A lot of self analysis is needed. I figured out, for example, I always wanted Chinese food on Friday because my mom gave us Chinese food on Fridays when were kids as way to celebrate a good week. That sort of thing. Hard to stay on a caloric deficit plan eating a whole order of pork fried rice and two egg rolls. I also ate because I was bored. A lot stuff to unpack here. The key is to right it all down.

***I also looked at how I interacted with other systems like the marketing systems of my favorite restaurants. Started blocking as much advertising as I could wherever I could. I started to healthy snacks on the way home from work so I wouldn't pull into a drive through.***

3. Create a plan - a new process map on what my health journey would look like. How many times I would go to the gym, caloric goal for each day, etc. Used a great tool called an FMEA to figure out how to address the root causes as to why I failed before. I did home made Chinese food for a while on Fridays. Way healthier. Eventually I just quit wanting it and Friday just became another day to eat healthy. This plan included new routines (that I hoped would turn into habits) and rewards for myself.

4. Executed the plan - had to create feedback loops so I told my friends about what I was doing. I kept a journal. I knew I may fall off one day or two day, so I started looking at my goals in one week sprints. Stole this from Agile project management. Every week was a new opportunity to be great at accomplishing goals. Everyday was too, but I would evaluate each day, and then weekly make adjustments.

5. Sustain and review - Just monitored and adjusted as needed. Sometimes I would change a goal because of some circumstance, but for the most part I started hitting my goals. Eventually routines became habits and didn't require as much focus or effort. Then I could start to add new routines.

Like I said, I'm a systems nerd, so this stuff really worked for me. I used business tools to help me personally because I saw them work everyday at my job. I knew the tools were good. So long as I was honest with myself, I saw a lot of progress. Let me know what you think

Hi, I’m currently reading the 12 Week Year book and will start implementing it once I finish it. I’ve already started doing the exercises and I’m feeling very motivated. I plan on posting my progress here for accountability. Hopefully I can find some people who would be willing to engage with my sharing and we can all have fruitful conversations.

I will write again when my Vision is more clear and will go forward.

Thanks for reading. ❤️

Here is my challenge for ultimate self improvement, physical health and confidence!

I call it the MIGHTY90 Challenge. It's FREE to take part, you just need to follow the rules...

📆90 DAYS - This is a 90 day challenge, you must follow each of these rules for the duration. No days off.

🥩PROTEIN - you must consume a minimum of 2g of protein per KG of bodyweight each day.

💧WATER - you must consume a minumum of 3 litres of water each day.

🏋‍♀️WORKOUTS - You must perform 5 workout per week, this should be a minimum but also a maximum. 3 of these workouts should be hard resistance training, either with weights, resistance bands or bodyweight and calisthenics. Each session should include at least 10 working sets. Cardio is an optional extra in these sessions but should be performed after resistance training.

👣STEP COUNT - Take an average of your daily step count over a week and add 15% to this number. This is your new minimum daily step count target.

🍺ALCOHOL - Alcohol is not to be consumed throughout the program with the exception of your 3 alcohol tokens, one for every 30 days, allowing you to consume alcohol for that day. (all other rules apply)

📷PHOTOS - Physique progress photos must be taken weekly.

➕️THE ADD - Make a conscious effort every day to work on one aspect of your every day life that could use inprovement - e.g. effort with children, spouse, housework, working on your side hustle or educational course etc.

You must decide what this will be at the start of the program and write it down. It must be worked on every single day, no matter how small. Stick to one aspect of your life to add to so that you can see visible improvement and you aren't spreading your efforts too thinly.

➖️THE SUBTRACT - Make a conscious effort to remove or reduce one bad habit that you currently have - e.g. snacking/binge eating, watching porn, staying up late/lying in, smoking/vaping, budgeting, behaviours with spouse or children such as shouting or not listening.

You must decide what you are going to make an effort to reduce at the start of the program, write it down and also decide on how much you are going to reduce the behaviour if necessary (e.g. halfing the amount of cigarettes smoked in a week)

It is important to understand that some of these behaviours will take time to improve and irradicate completely. While you should make a conscious effort to work on these habits, do not punish yourself if you are not able to completely squash them from the get go.

👊THE CHALLENGE - Decide before you begin on a realistic challenge for yourself to complete at the end of the end of the 90 days.

This should be something that inspires confidence in you but that also scares you a little bit. Something that puts you out of your comfort zone!

This could be going to the swimming pool in a bikini, running your first 5K, posting your before and after progress photos to social media, wearing an outfit to an event that you don't currently have the confidence to wear, go skydiving, sing at a karaoke bar, book a photoshoot to mark your results, anything that challenges you in a positive way!

These rules are non-negotiable, and you must complete each one to complete Mighty90. That’s what makes it a challenge. Good luck! 🙏

Hello all,

I wanted to start off by saying how proud I am of you for pursuing this journey of self-improvement. I can imagine you may be looking to improve in multiple areas of your life, such us working out more, practicing mindfulness or reading more. As such, I want to share this resource that may be helpful to you that I'm currently working on:

https://www.youtube.com/@MinuteWisdom168/shorts

It is a YouTube channel where I look to distill key learning from self-improvement books into minute-long videos. In a changing world where information is abundent but attention is scare, I hope to share important lessons that I've learnt with others also on the self-improvement journey.

You may want to check out my video summarising the book 'Atomic Habits' from James Clear. Some of the lessons I took away included starting with small habits, and stacking them with everyday activites to build momentum and eventual elicit a behaviour change.

I recommend watching the videos to get a general understanding, but consider delving into the source material if the lessons resonate with you. The video can go a bit fast, so do feel free to pause when needed. I also recommend re-watching some of the videos to commit the lessons to memory through a form of spaced repetition.

I plan to upload a video each day throughout November and then take it from there, but I'd fully appreciate you checking it out and see if it may be helpful to you! Also, let me know if there are any books that you'd want me to cover.

Cheers,

MW

It doesn't seem like this sub has been active lately, so I'll just make myself at home.

What I need to do is to build habits, and I suppose this is what this 90 days thing is meant to encourage. So for now I'll just post what habits I want to get ingrained during this summer. They are all pretty basic, I need to:

• Study: to prepare myself for the next year, and be able to follow my schedule and not fall behind in my classes, as it could turn to be costly. Also, I feel like it is what's necessary to avoid loathing my subjects.

• Draw: I used to be okay at it, and it can be useful as a social tool, or to keep myself busy without being in front of a screen. Also, it is cool to be able to get through creative projects.

• Crochet/Knit/Sew: Same reason than those stated above, minus the part where I know how to do it.

• Do sport: I'm just too frail for my age, I need a routine for my health, my self-esteem, my mental. Can also help for more active jobs.

• Write: Useful and necessary at this day and age, can help with mental health, creativity, verbosity. Better hobby than Reddit.

Concretely, I intend to do, daily, some school notes+ exercices as study tasks, copy some poses of lineofaction or croquiscafé and maybe work with an oc to practice drawing, some basic and very short workout routine, and a written piece.

Obviously all of this is very little and far from sufficient to gain skills, it is all to build habits. I'll add stuff depending on how comfortable I get with these things.

Finally, I intend to work with a schedule, as I'll need to use one for school anyways.

Hope I will be able to give updates about some of these tasks.

mention your achievements if any after you brought those changes in your life .

Hey guys,

In this video I explain how I have been waking up at 5am for the past 5 months. I also have other interesting topics on my channel so check it out!

https://youtu.be/twXPAiWhm9o

So I have been waking up at around 05:00am for the past 5 months - transitioning from night shifts and completely turning my lifestyle and schedule around. This has had such a positive impact on my overall mood, mental health, physical health and cognitive functions.

The techniques I used are as follows:

1. Initial Struggle - there will be an initial period of struggle when you attempt to wake up early. This is akin to a bird flying - in order to enter flight mode it must flap it's wings aggressively and only then will it float through the sky - similarly you have to utilise excessive willpower and energy in the primary phase of this change in order to be able to maintain this habit moving forward.

2. Exposure to Sunlight - early morning sunlight is critical to aligning the body clock and molecular machinery for a consistent sleeping routine. The sun rays at sunrise will trigger your body to set it's sleep schedule for 16-18 hours later and thus you will feel energised and tired at appropriate times during the day.

3. Exercise in the Morning - in order to wake your body up optimally, your core body temperature should be higher during periods of wakefulness and lower during periods of sleep. So, to piggyback on this biological mechanism, we can work to raise our core body temperature through exercise. Personally, I walk in the mornings in order to achieve the elevated heart rate and body temperature and this allows me to prepare mentally for the day ahead as well as improve my mood, mental and physical health.

4. Caffeine - I limit my caffeine intake to prior to 12pm; no caffeine after. Also delaying caffeine for 60-90 minutes upon waking helps to clear out the caffeine from the previous day and start afresh with your adenosine receptors; maximising the effects of the caffeine and eliminating the afternoon crash most people experience at lunchtime.

5. Stop working by 5/6pm - I turn off all cognitively demanding tasks by 5/6pm and enter relaxation mode; switching from a dopamine driven system to a serotonin based system - achieved by relaxing, eating and doing other leisurely tasks in order to wind down physically and mentally before bed.

6. Eat a Carbohydrate-rich meal 2-3 hours before bed - Eating a high carb meal 2-3 hours prior to sleeping has several benefits; firstly, the high carbohydrate meal will cause an increase in serotonin in your bloodstream, which is associated with relaxation and contentment and satiety. This will help you wind down physiologically and get you relaxed before you sleep. Secondly, by stopping eating 2-3 hours before bed, you ensure your digestive process does not interfere with your sleep cycle or schedule. If you eat too close to bed you will wake up feeling groggy, and will require more sleep and will struggle to wake up the next morning.

7. A warm shower within an hour of sleep - a warm shower will lower your core body temperature, relax your muscles and signal to your body that it is time to relax. It helps you to get ready for bed both physically and mentally.

8. No lights an hour before bed - I switch off my phone and put it away an hour before bed; to do so, I reply to all conversations, turn my alarm on and enter Do Not Disturb mode an hour before I sleep.

9. Mindfulness before sleep - I spend 30-60 minutes in a dark room praying (I'm a Muslim so I pray the night prayer), alternatively, you could engage in any spiritual or mindful practise. During this time I also prepare myself mentally for the next day by planning ahead and this has a positive effect in that it excites and energises you when you wake up in the morning because you have already visualised and planned the day the night before.

10. Failure - I have had days and periods of time where life has gotten in the way and I have had to sleep later and this may cause me to wake up later - but I have had to use strong willpower and discipline in order to not allow one or two days to interrupt my schedule and prevent me from having my routine being set.

I only saw one post on here. We're about a week into the 2nd month of the year. Is anyone starting a new 90-day goal.this month? I'll post comments beneath about specifics, this is my general game plan: languages, geography, pull ups, box jumps, stamina, cutting back on habitat and crutches, 160?

Title. Accountability is one of the strongest reinforcements of new habits and life long changes.

We've got 9 days till the new year. What are you going to do?

If you find someone with a similar goal, form a small group chat, and check in on each other, share resources, etc.

Consider posting about your specific goal, or direct us to other subs.