If I could adjust one thing about Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” (the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), I would add a menthol cigarette between God’s outstretched fingers. Adam need only reach an inch further to realize them puppies are divine.
Anyway, one workout doesn’t make you an athlete any more than one cigarette makes you a smoker. But you are an accumulation of your recurring choices and actions. We set goals to motivate ourselves. But, of course, we’re better at setting goals than reaching them. Why? Because motivation is fickle.
Rules help remove motivation from the equation. Setting rules can help you make choices in advance. You can’t argue with yourself if a decision was already made.
To transform a goal into a rule, make it highly specific. Tie it to an ultimatum or a cue, like a time of day, place, or preceding event. The fewer decisions involved in following your rule and the more routinized, the more likely it will stick.
| Goal | Rule |
|---|---|
| I want to lose 20 pounds. | No refined carbs in the house. |
| I want to get fit. | Work out for 30 minutes a day. |
| Read 20 books this year. | Read 30 minutes a day. |
| Sleep 8 hours a night. | No screens after 8 p.m. |
Don’t abuse rules to force a puritanical or tyrannical lifestyle. Do what you can sustain every day. A brutal rule you follow for a week is worth less than a simple one you follow for a year.
Living with rules can help you determine the price of a goal and see if you can realistically pay it. Once you commit to a rule, take it deadly seriously. If one of your ethical rules is to never steal or cheat on a partner, why not hold to one of your habitual rules with the same conviction?
“You get what you repeat. Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.”
~James Clear, Atomic Habits (Book)
