Zettel 202109121353 : Your routines are a law of Nature like gravity, entropy, or the speed of light
Like the laws of Nature, you cannot escape your habits and routines. To have a different result in life, you must develop different habits and routines.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Clear says on his Twitter feed that he adapted this saying from the Greek poet Archilochus:
We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.
At first I understood this to mean you must focus on the process that achieves your goal, not the goal itself. Otherwise, you won’t reach or maintain your goal once it stops motivating you. Getting close to or reaching your goal can cause you to lose motivation. That’s why you must focus on the routines that help you reach your goal. Keep the routine that generates the results. You need to make that the goal. Don’t make your desired results the goal.
But lately, I’ve spent time learning more about cosmology, entropy, and Information Theory. And I finally see something else from Clear’s quote. Your habits, routine, training, and systems are themselves a law of Nature. Laws of Nature allow and forbid certain outcomes. Routines and habits over time do the same thing.
Airplanes don’t defy gravity. They work within the limits and allowances of gravity. And they work in the limits and allowances of all the other physical forces, too. The Wright brothers show this by modifying their plane after each failed attempt. And finally, they achieve flight. And others have improved on the prototype ever since.
In that same way, you don’t improve by defying the results of your bad habits. You don’t conjure desired results from a broken routine. Instead, you adopt better habits bring the desired results to you. Your routines and habits set the limits and allowances of your possible outcomes. Like the laws of Nature, your routines will decide what you can achieve and have.
What new habits and routines can I work on? What routines have I let slip that worked well for me in the past? What do I need to remove from my life so that I have time for the important routines?
Here are some routines I that I know improve my life:
- Strength Training
- Monitoring my calory intake
- Cardio
- Cooking at home instead of eating take out
- Preparing meals ahead of time
- Tidying up in small, frequent bursts throughout the day
- Keeping my laundry load small by washing often
- Putting laundry away as soon as I take the clothes out of the dryer
I noticed I let these routines slip when I had to report back to the office. Now I see, I need to adapt so that I can re-establish these routines. They’re too important to abandon.
Here are some goals I have. And I need to establish routines for them:
- Improving my work skills on a regular basis
- Learn new things that I’m interested in
- Show more attention to the loved ones and friends in my life
- Improve my attractiveness to my current employer and to prospective ones, too
- Understanding money management
What should I remove from my life to make more time for the important routines?
I already avoid watching television and spending time on social media. I don’t have much to cut there. I need a more flexible job. I may need to seek out services that can help me save time.
I’ll revisit this topic over time. Routines are essential to self-improvement.
Here’s a cosmology reference that influenced my thinking: [Zettel 202109062200]. This is only one science reference that influenced this idea. I’ll link the other Zettels here as I write them. The ideas are in my head, but not in my notes just yet.