From Burnout to Balance: The 1% Way to Well-Being
In this edition, I explain why I stopped setting goals and why daily incremental progress is better.
Setting a goal and following it up have always felt overwhelming to me. The problem with me is I will set a goal, and I will want it achieved almost immediately. Instant gratification has a profound impact on nearly every aspect of life.
This year, I’ve slightly changed my approach to the game. Setting goals and tracking my progress closer to the goal is not something I will actively pursue this year. A second look at “Atomic Habits” by James Clear cleared what was always there for me to learn.
The idea that improving by just 1% every day in different areas of anything will cause monumental gains, in the long run, was always the book’s underlying theme. I couldn’t look at it from that lens for a long time. It took me getting properly burnt out and having severe anxiety about my job to get back to the realization of what James was trying to drive home.
Goals are outcome-centered. We do anything and everything in the hopes of achieving something. Sometimes, what that might be is that we keep doing the same things over and over and wonder why we aren’t reaching our goals. At least, that is what it was for me. It was the lack of proper prioritization of what was genuinely important, what needed improvement, what was and what was not under my control, and how I could keep doing what I did just 1% better to get better.
Now, I won’t say this was a full-on 180-degree shift in my approach. I have always been pretty conscious about reflection and introspecting. However, I have rarely been able to keep it up as a consistent practice. I usually whipped open my journal when going through some significant stuff or my mind needed some offloading.
However, at the beginning of this year, I decided to do more weekly and monthly reviews as well. Journaling became a good idea since when I got overwhelmed and anxious; these reflections helped me get down to the basics. That’s when it occurred to me, almost like an epiphany. I was focusing on the wrong things. I was looking at things like the next promotion, a large bank balance, a lean muscular body, and you get the idea.
These were all goals that were quite big, and I wanted them now. Even though I set them up for a year or two years from now, in my head, I wanted them immediately. Maybe not everyone is wired this way, but it got the better of me. I got burnt out quite quickly initially and started to derail, plus an added insecurity about my job. Then came to my help a line out of Bhagavad Gita, one of the most looked-up Hindu Texts. Lord Krishna, in the Karma Yoga text, tells Prince Arjun about the importance of engaging in “Action” without being motivated by the “Fruit.”
The text goes in-depth about this, but I will avoid that here. Effectively, what I learned and decided to implement actively was the idea to improve 1% every day in different aspects of my life and not to be engrossed in the result or fruits it’ll bear. The action part is under my control. Everything I can do to make my work better is in my hands. Improving by 1% is in my hands. What results that will fetch is not, and hence worrying about that will just be that, worry. Nothing else will come out of it, nor will I be able to change the outcome. Weirdly, though, if I do end up putting in the effort, much less is possible not to go my way.
If I eat well, get my workouts in, hydrate, and sleep well, I’m more than guaranteed to achieve my desired body and frame. If I ideate and write quality work and find ways to improve my work, I will be bound to get a higher reach. At work, if I constantly overdeliver and learn new processes, I will be considered sooner or later for better opportunities.
This year, I will spend more time focusing on the 1% without paying much attention to goals. Of course, it’s good to have goals, and I have some 20-year goals. But they have all become identity-based and only help feed my daily improvements ideology.
