How to Have a Good Decade

This time of the year there’s a lot of attention put on goals, resolutions, getting motivated, and having the best year ever. I think there’s every more hype about it this year because we’re starting a new decade.

The title of this episode is based on a book I read recently called How to Have a Good Day-Harness the Power of Behavioral Science To Transform Your Working Life by Caroline Webb.

I have to admit that when I’m reading a book I often apply the principles to long distance running. Because we all know that training for a marathon holds a lot of parallels to life. Caroline Webb says,

“One of the traps that people fall into is not just trying to do everything in one day, but also feeling that being an ambitious person means pushing yourself super, super hard. What we know about human motivation is that you do want to set purposeful, inspiring goals, but we make more progress by setting tiny interim goals that allow us to feel like we’re making progress, step by step, day by day.”

How to have a good decade

In order to have a great decade behavioral science gives us some clues as to what will help us accomplish this.

1. Be intentional

Don’t let the day simply happen to you (or year for that matter). Set intentions and priorities for the day because it is these priorities and assumptions that set the tone for the day. Your mind is always busy sorting through endless amounts of information (it’s even processing when we sleep).

Caroline Webb says,“The things that get through the filters are strongly influenced by the priorities and assumptions that we take into the day.” Here are three ways to be intentional:

2. Find a personal why

It’s clear that intrinsic motivation leads to higher performance as opposed to extrinsic motivation. If you’re doing it for yourself then you’re more likely to succeed. Some motivations to run your first marathon are more meaningful than others like doing it because someone else is excited about it/or pressuring you, or to try to impress other people.

Other more helpful whys include focusing on who you want to become and how you’re going to start living into that identity. If you start seeing yourself as a runner and as a marathoner then your daily actions will reflect that identity and it will change the choices that you make. A marathoner runs regularly. They take care of their bodies in ways that will keep them strong and healthy. They’re smart about their training in order to avoid injury.

3. Think big but start small

I 100% love it when people have big goals. But sometimes people never get past the big goals to see the smaller actions that they need to be taking. Daily goals should be focused and achievable.

The book Atomic Habits by James Clear addresses this topic so well. An atomic habit is a small routine or practice that’s easy to do and something that creates compound growth. We often get stuck in bad habits not because we don’t want to change but because we often don’t have the right system in place to achieve change.

Maybe your goal is to stop snacking after dinner. But if you eat sporadically through the day, don’t prioritize eating protein with dinner, and keep snacks in sight you’ll probably find yourself on a feeding frenzy late in the evening. Or maybe your goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon (or BQ in runner lingo). It can be a big goal that takes time to achieve. Progress toward this goal is achieved through the training you do day in and day out. You build strength and speed over time.

We often underestimate how much little changes can result in big growth over time. James Clear talks about the 4 Laws of Behavior Change in his book. They are: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying.

He says,

“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations….Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.”

We can often look at someone’s breakthrough moment and feel a little envious. We think, “why isn’t that happening for me?” But what we don’t often see is all the tiny steps and all the hard work and effort that led to that breakthrough.

Breakthroughs don’t usually happen by accident and sometimes we can’t predict when they’ll happen for us. For example, I ran 25 marathons before I qualified for Boston for the first time.

4. Identify Keystone Habits

Keystone habits are changes or habits that unintentionally carry over into other areas of life. Charles Duhigg talked about keystone habits in his book The Power of Habit.

Keystone habits are things that positively or negatively affect other areas of your life. They include positive habits like sleep, exercise, mindfulness, and healthy eating, etc. When you look at keystone habits it’s important to identify the things that bring you energy and also try to identify the energy vampires in your life.

Here are some examples of each:

• Energy givers– sleep, alone time, meditation, exercise, reading, eating balanced meals, time in nature, massages, etc…
• Energy vampires– Here are some of my energy vampires: getting less than 7 hours of sleep, too much screen time (watching TV, spending excess time on social media), not setting priorities for the day, too much sugar, going long periods between meals, not exercising, not drinking enough water, caffeine, and alcohol.

This will vary from person to person depending on whether you’re an introvert or extrovert and a morning or night person. Many people find that certain music can bring an energy boost so keep a playlist of songs that you can turn to when you need a power up. You may also notice that certain people in your life are energy givers while some are energy vampires.

5. Harness the power of environment.

We want to recognize that it can be tough to make changes and stick to goals on your own. That’s why tapping into the power of environment can fast track you to achieving goals. James Clear says,

“We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige.)”

This is why I’m careful about who I follow on social media. You may find that certain people give you a kick in the pants and are motivating while others just make you unhappy with your life. You have limited time so make sure that your environment is working for you. James Clear goes on to say,

“One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in common with the group.”

That’s one of the reasons why we created MTA and more specifically the Academy. We know how important it is to be surrounded by supportive and encouraging people who are achieving the things you are (or want to achieve).

If you find that the majority of people in your life respond to your running goals with “that’s crazy (and not the good kind of crazy)” then it may be time to add in some people who think you’re a badass.

One of the things I love about long distance running is that all you have control over is the work you put in and your attitude. You can go out each day with the mindset to “always do your best” (that doesn’t mean go hard every day and run yourself into the ground).

Anyone who’s run for any length of time knows that you can show up to a workout or race and have the best day of your life or the worst day of your life or maybe something in between. You really can’t control all the variables. All you can control is your preparation and attitude. Let’s make this new decade one where we approach it with the right preparation and attitude.

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