The more time you invest in one specific thing, the more it grows. The more you give to it, the vaster it becomes. This is simple transference of energy, and it is absolute. The more bricks you add to a house, the larger it gets (whether it be taller, thicker or wider). The more energy you invest into your body, the more it becomes like the energy you put into it (this alone should speak volumes about proper diet).
A habit is a repetitive action performed over time, and often becomes subconscious. However, a habit will build up the more you do it, whether or not you are conscious of it. Habits deepen with time, and the deeper a habit is engrained in your life, the harder it is to break. Therefore, we can use habits to our advantage to effortlessly reach our goals.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu
A goal is set into motion when the intention to accomplish it causes someone to take action towards it (this does not even have to be done consciously). The first action sets you up for other actions, and each consecutive action can bring you closer to or further from your goal. This happens one action at a time. Baby steps become giant leaps given time. By building habits that will move us towards our goal, we set ourselves up for success!
Say our goal is to develop an aesthetic physique through bodybuilding. The entire process might begin with the thought: I want to look like Brad Pitt/Tyler Durden in Fight Club! Or something like that, whatever would encourage you to begin researching bodybuilding or lifting weights. At first, you would do a lot of thinking about how to move towards your goal, or you may spend time researching how to do certain exercises, or how to eat. Eventually your thirst grows, and you find more and more resources that you build off of. Say you begin lifting weights, and are at the gym 3 times per week. You read that you need to eat a lot more food than you previously have been eating, to grow bigger. You begin putting in a lot of time and energy towards going to the gym, and eating properly.
Gradually you begin to figure out what exercises you like, which ones work best for you, when to do them, when to eat, what to eat, etc. By this point, simply the feeling of becoming stronger and moving towards your dream physique every time you leave the gym is enough to keep you going back every day you have scheduled. You develop a habit of achieving that feeling. The more you do it, the better you get at it. This even further propels you into doing more research, gaining a better understanding, and paying more attention to what you eat and how you lift. Day by day, you build upon what you knew the day before. The original thought has snowballed into a lifestyle change, one step (action) at a time!
After much effort and time has been placed into bodybuilding and many steps (actions) have been taken, you realize: hey, I’ve been going to the gym 3 times a week, every week for 6 months now! You were never really even noticed that you hadn’t skipped a single day, or that the feeling of gaining on your goal was keeping you on track. Day by day, you had simply been learning about your interest, online, in magazines, from your ripped neighbor, or in the gym. Until now, you had just been following what your research said, and were trying to adapt that into your own regimen. You understand how simply a habit can enter your life, inch by inch.
The next step is to consciously use what has worked for you, based on your own experience, to (consciously, this time) form habits that will bring you even closer to your goal. You decide : “I’m going to lift this many times a week, and eat this at this time, and bring my notebook to track every session.” Day by day you incorporate what you have learned into your life. Every day you learn more, sometimes you alter your routine or diet, based on new information. At this point, you have consciously created a habit that is moving you in a direct path towards your objective. Every time you do something out of habit, you remember your reason for it. Before taking any action, you ask yourself: “will this bring me closer to my goal, or further away?” Avoiding certain things, or bringing other things into your everyday life is altering these habits, but your momentum is so powerful at this point that you only choose actions that will bring you closer to your goal. Your habits become subconscious, and every day they are helping you progress. This allows you even more room to figure out/think about how your day to day living could be directed at faster achieving your goal, or even heading towards another goal at the same time. Therefore, while you are preoccupied trying to move towards new goals or moving faster towards your original goal, you are already moving towards your original goal on autopilot!
Just to show you how powerful you can be, imagine you have 3 goals set for yourself. All you have to do is set the intention for this goal to become a reality (anywhere, however you can, it does not matter). Once your first action towards each of these goals is taken, all you have to do is follow with a second action in the same direction. And then a third action, anytime after the second. The more actions are taken, the closer you get. When moving towards three different goals at once, take action towards one goal, and then the next goal, and then the next. This is easy if you just go one step at a time. Each action catalyzes the next, and before you know it your everyday habits will grow into an avalanche of success. Imagine doing this with 10 goals!
“Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance” – Kai Greene
The most successful bodybuilders are not successful for any reason you cannot be successful (granted in this domain, at the very top, because judges are involved, genetics can in fact play a role.) Their equation is simple. Figure out what works best for them as an individual, and repeat that over and over and over. It takes tremendous numbers of repetitive action to achieve success on a worldwide scale. The important thing is to keep doing these little things, day by day, week by week, year by year. All these little actions grow and grow, until they become the physical manifestation of your goal. They become success. You become success.