It’s Chinese New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Tiger!

For quite some time, I have thought that it was nice that in addition to the calendar new year, there is this second new year to again move forward on resolutions.

Like probably more than 90% of the population, I haven’t been sticking to mine.

Asking myself: why? I realize that probably the main reason for this is that I am trying to do too much all at once.

And stepping back from that a bit, I realize that the reason I am trying to do so much is because I am trying to have more activity to get me to a rather nebulous goal “out there.”

The fact of the matter though is that our goals are not “out there.” Each is already within us just waiting for us to bring them into fruition.

Or, perhaps more specifically we all have an infinite amount of goals we could be achieving, but without being focused and pursuing one goal we don’t really get far at all on any.

So, what is necessary?

Simple. Get really clear on the goal and then get in action thinking of ways in which to achieve that goal and keeping striving for it by acting toward it each day.

But, something key to remember is that the goal is not the most important thing.

No, instead it is the process of becoming better.

Yesterday, I started reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits and it helped to clarify many of the mistakes that I have made throughout my life.

Perhaps the most important is the realization that the attainment of the goal is not nearly as important as enjoying the daily actions in pursuit of it.

This has been a huge problem for me.

Each time I have set my mind on a goal, I have found myself putting on my blinders and heading straight at the goal with everything I have.

This got me over to China for study. This got me through law school in 2 and a half years instead of the normal 3. This got me a job at a real estate developer in China too. And this got me to the end of a marathon.

But, in each case upon the attainment of the goal, I felt empty. I came up feeling: “Ok, now what?”

What Atomic Habits speaks to is just going ahead and getting the systems in place to be constantly improving in the direction of one’s aim … the goal will take care of itself.

I like that! My aim is to write each day here. This is the habit I want to establish.

I am doing this for myself and in doing so I realize that production is not going to be expert as I put it out.

Or, perhaps I should say that it won’t be expert until I have established the habit and have been able to improve through its repetition over a significant course of time.

See, it isn’t about writing the perfect book, article, or blog post, article, or book.

Instead, it is about just moving forward day after day by doing an activity that I enjoy and letting the rest take care of itself.

That takes almost all the pressure off.

The only real pressure then is to make sure I get in here tomorrow and do it again.

I think that is a load I can bare. Cheers!