Dieting. Fitness. Journaling. Meditation. You’ll find a lot of productivity and commitment buzz words everywhere you go. The meanings used to be simple; but, because everyone have their own opinion and understanding that they project to other people; the target audience becomes lost into defining what it is and how to actually do it. A lot of people try the steps being presented by creators without even realizing that those may not apply to them because they are different from those who told them what to do. Mainly, the purpose of such content that we see becomes to mainly influence and not inspire. the audience tend to become demotivated because a lot of steps aren’t factoring in unexpected events and other complications of one’s life. And, we have to do something about it.
When people say that they have to be committed and be focused, they actually mean putting unrealistic expectations on their limited capabilities due to special circumstances. They assume that because something is effective to others; that, the same effect will happen to them. Of course not. It’s time for you to be de-influenced and to review what it actually means to lock in.
FOCUS
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- Understanding the Concept of Locking In: A Path to Focused Success
- The Systems Approach to Locking In
Understanding the Concept of Locking In: A Path to Focused Success
If you’re doing a quick research, you might see that there are no true definitions of being locked-in in terms of motivation and productivity. Most of the time, you’ll see economic terms, or even generic definitions – which is why we are lost in the first place.
In it’s most basic sense, being locked-in means that something or someone is immovable, or can’t be shaken or taken out of it’s original position. It means that despite the imperfect and abstract changes of that thing or person’s environment, it remains the same – basically inertia. If we’re going to apply this to values, behaviors, and actions, it means that regardless of change, one remains to have its original alignment and commitment. However, there must be nuance.
We are constantly interacting with external factors; and, our conscious and subconscious selves are always communicating and adapting to our experiences. It means, that we are bound to experience detours, side quests, and even misalignment – all of which may depend on the choices that everyone makes. It means that even the end goal that we might have wanted in the first place might change as well.
For example, for those who do 75 hard, 75 medium, or even 75 soft, even though they manage to build their habits after doing the challenges, they may still face unpredictable things that may either break or improve their commitment. Those who opt to drink a certain number of gallons of water may or may not suffer from complications depending on their past lifestyle or genetic make up. Alcoholics can’t just quit drinking cold turkey for their locking in period because they might suffer more than quitting in progression. There are those who might have made 20K steps a day as one of the goals; but, got distracted by a new job or a new responsibility. So, if the term, “locked-in”, means being unchanged and immovable, then does that mean that those people broke their commitment? If people are meant to re-do their challenges every single time that there’s a new factor being introduced to your own system, then does that mean that they never really achieved something?
That’s something that we can’t accept. We should be able to recognize the efforts that we have been doing ever since. We should redefine the concept of locking in from a mindset to a system. Why systematize the concept? Using this approach, we are able to factor in all of the nuances of experiences while still pushing towards our goals. And, given that our goals evolve, a system recognizes the need to identify reachable thresholds that we can continuously increase. In this manner, the only way to go is up.
The Systems Approach to Locking In
The system doesn’t really change anything. It makes your goals more achievable and supported. A system approach makes you able to diagnose your commitment and see where or what you can improve upon instead of just redoing the challenges or breaking down. Here are the many ways that locking in as a system can change your way of commitment and consistency.
Goal Setting. When you’re setting your goals, you must be so specific to the finest detail. You have to know within yourself the intricacies of your goals. For example, when you say that you want to be healthy, you must determine on what aspects of health do you mean improving upon and your factual definition of the word, “healthy”. You cannot depend on other people’s definition because only you know what’s truly happening within your body. Another thing is that there should be a proper rationale for your goals. If, let’s say, you want to be healthy physically – you want to be able to walk a long distance without losing your breath, the reason can be anything. Maybe, you want to do a bigger goal like hiking, or you want to walk your pet in the park everyday, or you want to travel around without suffering physically. You can be sentimental with your rationale; but, you also want to be truthful about it.
If let’s say, your goal is to be healthy by means of looking “good” by the standards of society, then the rationale, about external acceptance, is begging you to redefine your goals so you can work on what’s important. Maybe, it’s not about locking in by means of attaining that perfect visual. Inspection may suggest that you need to lock in by means of doing internal work instead.
Objective. For example, if one wants to improve their reading capabilities, they can set their initial objective of reading one book per three months. If they aren’t into books, then they can opt for reading essays or articles for a certain period. If they reach their first success point, they can increase the frequency or change the intensity – choosing to read one book per month, or reading other topics that they do not know of. The initial objective should always start with the metrics that they think they could actually do; and, not doing impossible things like reading one book per week from reading no books at all.
If the initial objectives suggest for you to do or have something that is not attainable on your current situation, then you can opt for changing some aspects. If your goal is to consume more media that has more depth and to be able to practice your critical thinking, but books or journal articles aren’t accessible to you, maybe you can opt for films instead. Or, maybe, you can consume other forms of media and practice your critiquing using those. Until the goal is truly attainable, you should want to change variables for as long as you need.
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Scope and Limitations. Assess your situation. You cannot just copy others’ challenges just because that’s what you saw on social media. Most of the time, it’s either they don’t really accomplish their own steps; or, they’re capable of doing those tests regardless on what happens to them. The ability of accomplishing almost impossible metrics is a privilege that you may not have. So, you have to determine your circumstances. For example, if you want to eat healthy, you have to know: 1) whether you’ll be happy or you are able to do strategies like calorie deficit, or volume eating, or changing your diet altogether; or, 2) whether you have enough budget to eat healthy in the terms that you set. When accessibility is limited when it comes to health goals, you can try achieving the same by using a different method; or, changing the variables of your goals; or, lengthening the duration of such goals so that you can get the variables that you need first before you try accomplishing what you need to do and be consistent.
The limitations also include the establishment of boundaries. You need to know how far you want your limits to be pushed because doing over the acceptable range can shock your body and your brain; and, may eventually lead to your burn out. Your boundaries can determine your methodology and contingency plans should there be any independent variables that come to you. For example, when it comes to budgeting your health plans, you can start setting a budget that is really comfortable on your end. As much as possible, you will want to buy items that are less than the expected expense. You will then allow yourself to overspend at least 5-10% (or whatever number you choose). For those health goals that are spanning years, you should always readjust your budgeting in relation with the annual inflation rate of the place where you’re in. In this way, you can revise your goals, or even make extra more steps.
Methodology Framework. Locking in, in an influencer sense, can be seen with a couple of “simple, impossible” tasks. Most people are afraid of doing the challenges or even failing those altogether because they don’t account the steps that they must do in order to accomplish their tests. For example, for those who want to do 20K steps a day, they must be able to do warm ups and cool downs that might take time. They must not shock the body so they must have rest days at the start of their journey, they must drink a certain amount of water and take in electrolytes, and eat enough protein, and etc. At first, they aren’t able to do the 20K steps in one go; and, often times, they don’t have the time to do so, so they should break the steps into multiple rounds to make it manageable.
Breaking down the main challenge into multiple small steps and so on and so forth makes everything clear and understandable. When one is in danger of failing, they will be able to identify what steps they aren’t doing well or enough that makes the main goal a bit unachievable. When one feels unable to finish all of the small steps, they can revise the list or even adjust the goal to a slightly comfortable range. You just have to remember that every smaller and smaller steps must have a purpose in the grander schemes of the challenge. It should not be because other people are doing it.
Contingency Plan. This is one big thing that people often times doesn’t have – whether in systems, challenges, or even in other day-to-day situations. People often perceive contingency plans as either expensive or idiotic because they think that the only way for them to not fail is to keep pushing. But, in all systems, errors and failures can happen; but, that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer greatly from the consequences. It doesn’t mean that you can’t lower the risks. Yes, having contingency plans recognize the presence of mistakes and surprises (which should be part of the standard); and, it means that you will be more capable to realign and recommit yourself to accomplishing your goal.
It doesn’t have to be expensive nor heavy. For example, if your goal is all about writing or creating content, and you expect or anticipate that you won’t be able to fully commit in a repetitive mundane sense, than one of your contingency plans should be creating in bulk and scheduling publishing in that repetitive sense. That way, you’ll be able to slack off, live your life, and face unexpected circumstances without breaking your internal pact.
You as a person has more than one goal that you want to accomplish. You might want to be a creator like a writer at the same time that you want to be healthy. If one goal goes south, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world. It may mean that it’s not time yet or your current circumstances don’t allow you to be successful on that part. The good thing is, besides being able for you to get out of those circumstances, you have the capacity to do other goals that might make you even more excited and capable to do the rest of the challenges that you might want to take.
Progress Notes. You need to document with consistency because you’ll be able to understand and see how success doesn’t happen in one straight line from one point to another. It allows you to recognize what else can you improve during your journey. In fact, you can even use your notes as inspiration to further do what you do. It’s just that you have to give yourself some time before you can do your notes, one after another, so you can see the significant changes that you experienced from doing your stuff a day after the next.
This is what I really love seeing even for those who do challenges in a non-systematized way. Often times, people use progress notes to hold themselves accountable with their actions. They often times take pictures or proofs at the very start of their journey to have a baseline reference or data that they can compare to to determine whether they are successful on what they do. Success matrices in terms of goal achievement and human consistency can be both qualitative and quantitative in nature; so, to be able to have both numerical and visual representation of the changes that you do is inspirational at best.
This part also includes the capacity for you to create a feedback loop between yourself and the community. If your goal only includes yourself, then you must create inferential analysis of the whole journey by referencing your progress notes during and after achieving your first goal. If your goal includes the community or a community that you will be building, find ways to get their thoughts as to what you’re doing and you’ve been achieving during and after your journey. You need to determine whether it’s time for you to improve upon and be consistent with your current goal; or, you can move on and do greater things. And, don’t be sad if you seem to fail in achieving your the things that you first set. The feedback loop recognizes that even though locking in is a system, the system is continuously being developed by a human, who is capable of making mistakes.
The funny ironic thing about this as well, is that even my understanding of the systems approach needs a lot of feedback. And, when you get feedback, you will be able to redefine or improve upon this approach to motivation and being locked in. There’s always room for error and improvement. This technique may fail at first; but, there’s always an opportunity to reassess and tune the finer details.
Let me know what you think about redefining challenges as a system. Do you do it as well?
Do you frame goal achievement using another approach?
If you wish to try out the systems approach in locking in, you may use this free eBook for a 7-day lock-in challenge!
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