Track Your Commitments, Not Progress, to Reach Your Decisions
This is standard advice to keep track of what steps you have taken to achieve your goal. But this progress can make you think you can get away with cheating now. Avoid the “progress trap” by questioning your commitment to a goal.
In his New Years Guide to Decisions, Chris Bailey takes a lesson from Willpower Instinct . Since tracking progress can trick your brain into cheating, stop looking at it as progress:
View your actions as proof that you are committed to your goal. After you have taken positive steps towards a goal, ask yourself, “How committed are you to that goal?” Don’t ask yourself how far you are in this direction.
Watching your progress is good , but you need to keep an eye on the big prize. Therefore, when thinking about a broader goal, question your commitment to the goal, do not count small steps.
Bailey’s little travel guide is a good start if you’re serious about fulfilling one of your New Year’s plans, so you can check it out in detail.
Guide to New Year’s Decisions | Productive life