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This applies not just to things you have to do, but also things you think you want to do. Maybe you think you should learn Spanish, but you haven’t done anything to actually learn Spanish. Admitting that you aren’t actually committed to the idea enough to do the work of learning Spanish can help close that loop. Letting go of that feeling that you should learn Spanish just might be the thing that frees up your mind enough that you decide to take up paddleboarding on a whim. The point is that the new year isn’t just a time for starting something new. It’s a time to let go of the things from that past that are no longer serving you.
In many ways this is the antidote to that ever-so-popular slogan “Just do it.” Just do it implies that you shouldn’t think about it, instead of deciding what you really want to do or should do. Maybe spend some time remembering why you wanted to do it in the first place, and if those reasons no longer resonate with you, just don’t do it.
If you like this idea, I highly recommend getting Allen’s book. It goes into much more detail on this idea and has some practical advice on letting go. You can still keep track of those things, in case you do decide, years from now, when you’re paddleboarding through the Sea of Cortez, that now you really do want to learn Spanish and are willing to do the work.
Remember to Live
I will confess, my enthusiasm for Getting Things Done has waned over the years. Not because the system doesn’t work, but because I have found my life more dramatically improved by doing less, not more. It’s not that I’ve stopped getting things done. It’s that I’ve found many of the things I felt like I should do were not really my idea; they were ideas I’d internalized from other places. I didn’t really want to do them, so I didn’t, then I felt guilty about it.
While everything I’ve written above remains good advice for starting a healthy habit and keeping it going, it’s worth spending some time and making sure you know why you want to do what you’re doing. I have been rereading Bertrand Russell’s In Praise of Idleness, and this line jumped out at me: “The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.”
In the case of habits, I think it’s worth considering whether you want to start a habit because you love whatever the habit is or because you think you should because it will make you happier or healthier or more successful. Doing things because you genuinely love them for their own sake is much more likely to lead to success.
Do the Work
As one of my writing professors used to say, to be a writer you have to park your butt in a chair and actually write. To be a yogi, you have to do yoga. To run, you have to run. There’s no easy way around it. You have to put on your grown-up pants and do the work.
However, on the flip side, as Clear points out early on in Atomic Habits, the way to change who you are is to change what you do. “Each time you write a page, you are a writer. Each time you practice the violin, you are a musician. Each time you start a workout, you are an athlete.” Each time you do the work, you become the future self you want to be.
