Alignment

I remember when I was younger, during one particularly unproductive period, thinking that I really just needed to find something I wanted to do badly enough. My problem was that what I was doing didn't align with my values well enough, and that was what led to being unproductive. I was convinced that all I needed was to find something truly motivating to focus on and then everything would fall into place.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and later on when I was first able to just work on what I wanted for a little while, I was still very unproductive. That was a bit of a shock, and eventually I realised that my issue wasn't with my goals, it was with my work habits. I needed the skills and the discipline to work effectively, and without that it didn't matter what my goals were. So since then I have spent a lot of time trying to build good creative working habits.

But does that mean that goals don't matter? I don't believe so. In fact, there's an equivalent failure mode, although it's fortunately not really been my issue, where your working habits are very good, but you are doing things that don't actually meet your goals. The end result is still not getting what you want, but it's easier not to notice, because you are being very effective at doing the thing you don't want.

I previously wrote about intention, and the importance of connecting goals to actions, but I think there's an even more general point here. Not just goals and actions, but everything should point in the direction you want to go. It might seem like you only need to really want something, or that having good habits is sufficient, or creating a good work environment, social pressure, financial incentives, or even a higher power. But why not all of them? Every single thing you can muster, all aligned in the same direction like the electrons in a magnet.

I think sometimes it's tempting to dismiss low-level solutions as easy or cheap, because they shouldn't be necessary if you have the higher-level stuff sorted out. Little tricks like leaving your alarm on the other side of the room, forcing yourself to put your running shoes on before deciding whether to go for a run, or disconnecting your computer from the internet for a while. What about glib little rhymes and sayings? No screens in bed, have a good sleep instead! That might be dumb, but how dumb can it be if it works?

The point is to build yourself a kind of fractal fortress. At the very highest level, the direction of your life is going the right way. You zoom in and your goals are pointing you in that direction. You zoom in and your plans are designed to achieve your goals. No matter how far you zoom, you still see the same shape, all the way down to the silly tricks you use to get yourself through the day.