The Habit Tracker That Focuses On Who You Want To Become

Most people think about chasing a certain outcome when the topic is building a habit — for example: lose 10 kg, quit smoking, read a new book. But the problem is, even with sincere motivation and desire, it becomes a hassle to follow through after a couple of days. You might say you ended up losing motivation, or just lost the will to do it anymore, or even came up with all sorts of excuses to feel better about quitting. The problem wasn't the motivation, or anything wrong with you, or the outcome you were chasing. You failed because you were trying to build the habit the wrong way.

Outcome is what most people chase, and they end up failing — then they start doubting themselves or their ability to build habits, and may even give up trying again. The problem was never about you.

Every outcome is achieved by some process. If you want to drink water, you gotta go fetch it or use some means to get it and drink it — it won't happen just by desiring the outcome, at least not in this world! Okay, so you may think it's the process that builds all habits, right? Wrong!

Our everyday actions are driven by some belief we carry with ourselves. If someone is waking up early to go to the office, it's because they believe they do it to earn a living. For every process to take place, there must be a belief driving it.

You can't go to the gym every day if you believe you're a lazy person, and a disciplined person will never quit going to the gym. The difference isn't the outcome (working out) or the process (driving yourself to the gym) — it's the identity these two people carry and believe about themselves.

So we don't build habits by chasing outcomes or forcing a process. We can only build habits that last by building an identity.

• The goal is not to write a blog; it's to become a writer.
• The goal is not to go to the gym; it's to become a disciplined person.
• The goal is not to take care of your skin; it's to become someone with good skin.

Systivia does exactly that — it focuses on your identity and builds the person you're becoming, not just the streaks or the outcome.

Imagine a person trying to quit smoking. He's offered a cigarette and declines with “Sorry, I'm trying to quit.” Sounds like a good response. But he's still trying to become something else while believing he's a smoker. He's hoping his behavior can change while carrying the same belief.

Now imagine the same situation, but he answers “Sorry, I'm not a smoker.” A subtle difference — but this is a change in identity. He believes he's not a smoker, and that belief drives him to decline more easily. But if he still believed he's a smoker who's trying to quit, that belief will make it harder for him to decline, and he'll lose his sense of purpose very soon — leading him to fail.

Most people fail at building a new habit because they never build the identity capable of holding it. They're trying to become something else while still carrying the same beliefs about themselves. You can't become a new person while holding onto the same beliefs and patterns that kept you stuck as the old version of yourself.

If you're forcing yourself to go to the gym while still believing you're a lazy person, that belief will fight against your will every time, and it will lead you to quit. You need to align your beliefs with the outcome you're chasing — you need a belief that drives you to do the work.

Once we understand that true behavior change is identity change, the real focus for building new habits should be on the belief system that drives your everyday actions. Developing a habit of working out requires you to believe you're a disciplined person. Someone who believes they're lazy will fail at it.

For building a new habit, you need to start with who you're going to become. If you're going to write, focus on believing you're a writer. If it's taking your wife on a date every Saturday, focus on being the passionate husband.

Every action is a vote for your identity — the more you do the action, the more you believe you're someone who does it. They say you need practice to be confident. The more you practice, the more confident you become, because confidence is an identity built through repeated proof of your ability to do something. The more you do it, the more proof you have.

Every time you go to the gym, it reinforces your identity as a disciplined person and makes it stronger. Every action is a vote for who you're becoming — but your actions have to match what you believe you already are. If they don't match, your belief is likely going to work against you and make you quit soon.

The identity persists. The guilt doesn't.

It started as a personal struggle. I needed a system to track my reading habit after I bought myself over 60 books — I could make one for myself. It started as just a tracker I needed for myself, then I wondered: why couldn't I build it for other people who might need it too? That's how it started its journey.

I renamed the project, brainstormed a lot of features and things I wanted, and struggled with self-doubt and imposter syndrome every day. I wasn't sure if what I was building would provide value to anyone, or if I was even someone who could do this. But I knew I needed to align my belief first to keep going, because if I believed I wasn't a real founder, I'd never pull this through. So all I needed was to act like a real founder — why couldn't I be? What's the difference between me and people who actually build something and grow it?

It took months and months of building, and I was hiding behind building more and more features to avoid facing failure in front of real users. I kept delaying because I wasn't feeling “ready” to ship it yet — because it lacked some more features I had in mind. Then I had to learn the hardest lesson: stop hiding behind building features and face the truth. It's okay to fail in front of real people, it's okay to not have it perfect. It just needs to be simple — a lot of features won't provide more value, but may just confuse them. So I started cutting features and focused on shipping a minimal, working core.

I first shipped a web app with a backend, then realized no one would want to use a website for logging their habits, and it lacked the ability to send reminders. Then I needed to take it to the Play Store — again I had identity doubts. Was I even someone who could publish on the Play Store? But I aligned my belief with: why can't I? I'm more than capable of it. I learned mobile development, built the app with the same features, and submitted it to Google Play Console. I gathered 18 testers to use my app for 14 days, as required by Google before getting production access, and I pulled it through. Then I got production access, and it went live on the Play Store.

Then I realized it'd be better to cut down the backend and simply ship a version that works offline, since it'd provide more privacy, availability, and better performance to users. So I rebuilt it to work offline, and I've been improving it ever since.

But Systivia is not just an app — it's an ideology, a philosophy of identity and how it shapes habits. I want to take it further. Now I'm running a community to bring real people onboard, together in one place to communicate, and I'm writing blogs to deliver this ideology I want to push forward — and I genuinely love doing it. I've been working on it for more than a year, and I'm going to keep doing it, because I believe results will come once there's enough volume of content I've built.