How to achieve life goals with no willpower
I used to be great at starting things but terrible at finishing them. Fitness routines, side projects, learning new skills — it was almost always the same story. They get off to a strong start, but then they gradually decline and eventually just give up within a few months.
For a long time, I thought this was just who I was. Some people have discipline, others don't. But after a bunch of failed attempts and a few unexpected successes, I started seeing a different pattern. It wasn't a lack of willpower or motivation. It was an approach.
Three things changed how I handle goals: commitment, consistency, and environment. These are not revolutionary concepts, but my perspective on them has changed.
The usual story
Every time I decide to change something - maybe build a product, get in shape, or learn a skill. The first week is amazing. I’m motivated and focused, and making real progress.
Then life happens - work gets busy, sick or just a bad week happens, or you just have a bad day. A few days missed, then a few more. Before you know it, you're back where you started and probably feeling worse about yourself than before.
I did this with my SaaS project for months. I'd set ambitious evening schedules for myself - three hours of coding after work every single day. When I inevitably missed a day, I felt like I was failing. If I missed a week, I'd convince myself that the whole thing was doomed.
The same thing happened with running. I'd create perfect training plans, then abandon them after missing my first workout. It took three attempts before I ran my first trail race last year.
I had a breakthrough when I realized that I was treating consistency like a religion instead of a tool.
Commitment without perfectionism
True commitment doesn't mean never having bad days. It's about having a plan for when they happen.
With my current side project, I changed the rules at the beginning. Instead of "work on this every day," I changed it to "work on this every week." Some weeks, that means deep Saturday building sessions. Other weeks, it's fifteen minutes during lunch reviewing user feedback or sketching new features.
The key is to never let a full week pass without working on the project. Even ten minutes counts. Reading through old notes counts too. The goal is to keep the project active and do not leave.
This approach works because life is unpredictable. You'll get sick, experience work emergencies, or simply feel burned out. Planning for these interruptions instead of pretending they won't happen is what makes the difference between abandoned and finished projects.
Consistency as a tool
Consistency works, but obsessing over it stalls progress.
When I started trail running, I was rigid about my schedule. Miss one run and feel guilty. Miss two runs and I would abandon the entire program. I went through this cycle multiple times before figuring out what actually worked.
The realization came during a run where I was mentally listing all my missed workouts. What if I had it backwards? What if doing something is better than the all-or-nothing cycle I kept falling into?
Consistency isn't about perfection, it's about showing up most of the time. I started aiming for 80%, even less, 10% instead of 100%. But making additions every one or two weeks. If I wanted to run 3-4 times per week, I started with 1 instead and the repetition and frequency grew more important.
If I’ve accomplished once, it’s better than zero. If this week I made more than last - it’s awesome!
This mindset got me through my first, second, and third trail races. Not because I had perfect training weeks, but because I had good enough ones.
Environment
This is the part that most people skip, but it's probably the most important.
Your environment is more than just your physical space. It's everything around you that influences your daily choices: your workspace, your social circle, your digital habits, and where you keep things.
When I wanted to write regularly, I spent months trying to force myself to write in my home office. I'd sit down with good intentions, but then I'd get distracted by email, social media, or random tasks that suddenly seemed urgent.
The solution wasn't more willpower. It was environmental design. No notifications, news feeds and social media. But added a couple of newsletters about writing, share ideas of content with my wife, discuss it (and she actually became my editor in chief). Piece by piece, I run out of the dreaded ‘first line hell’ — that struggle of just getting started.
Your environment should make good choices easier and bad choices harder. Want to eat better? Fill your kitchen with healthy food and remove junk food. Want to learn something new? Set up your materials somewhere visible and accessible.
What changed?
Six months after implementing these three things, I saw different results. Unlike my previous failed SaaS, which I abandoned after months of inconsistent effort, the side project I'm building now has consistent weekly progress. I completed my first trail race and then signed up for two more. Some healthy habits became a part of my life with no resistance.
But the real change was internal. The constant cycle of self-disappointment stopped. I changed my perception of myself from someone who "doesn't follow through" to someone who gets things done, albeit not always in a straight line.
These successes started reinforcing each other. The confidence I gained from completing my first trail race made it easier to tackle other challenges. The systems I built for consistent running transferred to my consistent work on the current project.
The reality is
None of this is groundbreaking. Commitment, consistency, and environment aren't new ideas. However, how you think about them matters more than you'd expect.
You don't need perfect discipline or superhuman willpower. You need systems that work with human nature, rather than against it. Plan for bad days instead of pretending they won't happen. You also need to make your environment support your goals instead of sabotaging them.
The gap between who you are and who you want to become isn't about becoming a different person. It's about building better systems.