My new year’s resolution is to make 2024 my year of radical self-improvement.
I’ve been passionate about self-improvement since 2016, when I first started writing about it. That interest has borne considerable fruits since then. But my personal growth has been in fits and starts and punctuated by periods of backsliding.
I’ve had many daily writing streaks alternating with writing droughts. I’ve adopted the keto diet multiple times, each time eventually falling off the wagon. I’ve periodically renewed my dedication to the Getting Things Done productivity system but never managed to really make it smooth and complete.
I want 2024 to be different. I intend to make steady progress and permanent gains throughout the entire year.
To accomplish that, I’m taking a methodical, foundational, and incremental approach. I’m starting with fundamental fixes of key habits. And I’m fixing my attention on those fixes until I’m certain they’re fixed in place. Only after I’ve fully installed a new habit as a permanent fixture in my character will I shift my attention away from it and onto the next habit to install on top of it.
That is why my daily writing has been dedicated to key habit formation: especially my morning routine. I’m trying to lay firm foundations upon which to build better days and a better me. Those foundations deserve sustained attention, because if they crack, whatever I construct on top of it will crumble.
The flaw underlying my hitherto fitful personal growth is that I didn’t pay attention to foundational fixes enough. And when I did, I let my attention wander away from them to other self-improvement interests before finishing the job.
A passion for self-improvement is in vain if it is only an intellectual interest. Self-improvement must be a tough-minded practical pursuit to bear lasting fruit.