Establishing Habits

 

This is the second part of a personal finance lecture on goals and habits. 

Goals must have an action plan, a method of putting the steps towards achieving that goal into practice. In our traveling case, the action plan were the roads we’ve travel to get where we wanted to be at the end of each day. This leads us into the discussion of habits.

I’m taking much of this from the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear. It is the best book I’ve read about habits and the effects they have on people.

People often confuse goals and habits. Forming particular habits can be a goal, but good habits should not be temporary things we attempt and let go of, but permanent changes we make that form character. Aristotle refers to the four cardinal virtues as types of habits, things we must be formed in. But developing good habits is not easy. So if you set large habits it may not be attainable immediately. You should aim for smaller, more permanent habits (hence the name, atomic, i.e. atom-like” habits). These will remain with you. The author, James Clear, emphasizes the nature of compound interest when considering habits. Compound interest is the interest that builds up over time, months, and years. When we build smaller habits over time, they form larger patterns in our lives and give us the ability to achieve our goals.

“Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.” (Atomic Habits, ch. 1). Also in chapter 1, he says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” In other words, you must have a system or a process in place to bring about your goals. He even says that goals are a waste of time, which I disagree with, but I understand what he’s saying. There must be a plan to accomplish the goals, and then there must be further goals to pursue them.

As your habits change, you will change. You will find that your outlook improves and you will grow in confidence. This is not immediate but happens as you stick with your habits. Which leads to another point – you must be willing to grow, to change. Jesus commended humility in what we know as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), e.g. “blessed are the poor in Spirit, blessed are the meek…” These qualities are born in the person who is sees his or her life as being in God’s hands and is willing to submit his life to the direction God gives.

We all have areas in which we need to grow. Willingness to give yourself to godly habits and change is necessary to become the person He intends you to be. Never become locked into thoughts or a mindset except what is commanded by God in His word. Commit yourself to growth throughout your life.

There is much more we could say about habits, but let me tie this together with personal finance. In time we will come to discussing God calls us to be good stewards of our finances, i.e. saving and building. But having more money isn’t the end of life. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that the rich only end up leaving their money to others (Eccl. 5:10-17). We begin this semester by considering how we are to arrive at the destination before us. But if your destination if faulty, all the planning in the world will only get you to perdition faster. This goes back to your reason for building wealth. If you see yourself as a steward in God’s kingdom and everything you have as a gift from Him, you will be more likely to pursue the gifts of God but to do so as a soldier, living as a minister of God’s restoration in the world.