In this episode Ankur Warikoo shares his insights on the distinction between setting goals and establishing habits for personal and professional growth. He narrates a personal experience of waking up with a sore neck, which disrupted his workout routine, leading to a broader discussion on the pressure of goals and the resilience of habits. He argues that while goals can create unnecessary pressure and disappointment when not met daily, habits naturally integrate into our lives, making progress inevitable without the added stress of daily achievement. He advocates for focusing on building habits rather than setting rigid goals, using the example of writing a book as an illustration of how consistent habits lead to achievement over time.
00:00 Welcome to Woice with Warikoo: Insights on Life and Success
00:17 A Personal Anecdote: The Lesson of Flexibility and Resilience
00:44 The Power of Habits Over Goals
02:04 Setting Habits for Long-Term Success
02:48 The Art of Writing a Book: Goals vs. Habits
03:11 Closing Thoughts and Invitation to Subscribe
[00:00:01] Hey everyone, you're listening to Ankur Warikoo on Voice with Warikoo. On this podcast
[00:00:07] I talked to you about entrepreneurship, how to grow in life, manage personal finances,
[00:00:12] handle failures and a lot more things that just come to my mind. The episode begins.
[00:00:18] So something very interesting happened today. I woke up with a very sore neck. I had most
[00:00:23] likely twisted my neck or something like that and it was hurting a lot. I went
[00:00:28] to play tennis and I could barely do it. Then I went to the gym and I just couldn't.
[00:00:34] So I dropped it and I didn't work out today and maybe I won't work out tomorrow and maybe
[00:00:41] then I'll come back to it the next day. And it didn't feel like I lost anything because
[00:00:47] I know of a lot of people who, if they've set a goal, they've set a target and for whatever
[00:00:52] reason they are unable to accomplish something in a day, they feel very flustered. They
[00:00:56] feel like, oh my God, we didn't walk towards our goal or target today. We didn't walk
[00:01:01] towards our aim today. We didn't walk towards our destination today. But that's the thing
[00:01:07] about setting goals and targets that every single day feels like you have to make progress.
[00:01:15] And the truth is there will be days when you don't. The truth is there will be
[00:01:19] days when you can't. The truth is there will be days when you don't feel like
[00:01:25] it. And it shouldn't feel like you have not done enough that day just because you couldn't
[00:01:32] or you didn't want to, or it didn't happen. What I love is say a habit. Because when you set a habit
[00:01:40] it doesn't matter whether you showed up today or not. It's a habit. It's like a spring. It will
[00:01:44] rebound. It will come back to its original shape. So I know that working out for me is a
[00:01:48] habit and if I couldn't make it happen today, I will make it happen tomorrow. And even if it
[00:01:53] didn't happen tomorrow, it will happen the day after. But whenever it does, it will come back to
[00:01:58] its original shape. That's the habit. That's the power of one. So when you set a goal or a target,
[00:02:06] you want to get to a certain bank balance by 25. You want to marry somebody by 26. You want to
[00:02:12] have kids by X. You want to have that house by Y. Every single day, month, year, you feel
[00:02:20] the pressure of working towards that. And if for whatever reason, that day, that month, that year
[00:02:25] didn't work out the way that you had planned, you feel like you're not going to hit your goal or your
[00:02:30] target. But if you make it a habit, a habit of reading every day, a habit of writing every day,
[00:02:35] a habit of meeting people every week or whatever that case is, you then don't put the pressure
[00:02:40] of every day, every month, every year to make things happen. It just happens. It just
[00:02:46] happens. So I often say this, that there are two ways of writing a book. You set out to write a book
[00:02:52] and at the end of the year, you may or may not have a book or you set out to write every day.
[00:02:58] And at the end of the year, you will have a book. The choice is yours. Don't set goals or
[00:03:07] targets. Set habits. Thank you for listening to this episode of Voice with Varikoo.
[00:03:15] To be notified of upcoming episodes, be sure to subscribe and follow the show
[00:03:19] on this app right now. Also don't forget to rate and review the show because that just feels nice.
[00:03:26] Thank you.