Business Meets Life
Why Don't We Do The Things We Know Are Good For Us?
Janine Jakob · 8 min read
Humans are the most contradicting of all species. We know what's good for us, yet we somehow ignore that good thing and continuously do the thing that brings us more harm than good. We have adequate information on how to eat healthily, how to save money and how to exercise, but we don't often follow the rules.
A lot of the time we realise what we're not doing and try to make a change — and more often than not the beneficial changes don't stick, and we fall back into the old routine. In an interview with HuffPost, therapist and author Dr. Pat Allen said the root of it is that we don't love ourselves enough. We're almost always the first to judge and criticise ourselves, and we're unable to make good habits stick because satisfying an immediate pleasure has a stronger impact than our concern for long-term benefits.
1. Start simple. Intense plans feel like a strong start, but what matters is whether the plan sticks. Cutting all carbs and adding a two-hour daily gym routine from day one is unlikely to last — and you know it. Start simple, one step at a time.
2. Stay consistent. Habits stick more easily when you create a routine out of them, such as going to the gym at the same time every day. The environment, time and circumstances then cue your mind and body into taking action.
3. Join a supportive community. Being part of a like-minded community with similar goals boosts motivation. We can encourage each other when we're down and keep each other going when we feel like quitting.
Remember: success is about progress, not perfection. Maybe you'll make a huge leap today and only a small step tomorrow — but with each step, you're progressing.
Knowledge is not the missing ingredient
Leaders rarely fail to act because they have never heard the advice. They fail because the desired behaviour competes with immediate demands, unclear priorities and environments built around the old routine.
The question is not only ‘What should I do?’ but ‘What makes the current behaviour easier, safer or more rewarding right now?’
Make the next action obvious
A goal such as ‘use AI more’ or ‘be more visible’ asks the brain to make too many decisions. Translate it into a specific action tied to a time, place and output.
For example: every Tuesday at 8:30, capture one leadership lesson from the previous week and turn it into a draft. Specificity removes negotiation.
Design social reinforcement
Habits become more durable when other people expect and support them. A colleague can provide accountability, a team ritual can create a cue and a shared review can make progress visible.
Choose support that strengthens ownership rather than creating dependence. The system should help you act, not require someone else to rescue the process.
Scale only after consistency
Ambitious plans often collapse because they demand a new identity overnight. Begin with a version that fits a difficult week, repeat it and then increase the challenge.
Consistency creates information. Once you know where the real friction sits, you can improve the process with confidence.
Turn reflection into a working practice
Insight only becomes useful when it changes a decision, a behaviour or a system. Choose one action that can be completed this week, give it an owner and define what better will look like. Small, visible progress creates more confidence than an ambitious plan that never enters the calendar.
Review the result after thirty days. Keep what creates clarity or momentum, remove what adds noise, and make the next improvement from evidence rather than enthusiasm. This disciplined cycle is how a useful idea becomes part of the way a leader operates.
Executive action checklist
- Translate one broad goal into a time, place and visible output.
- Make the first step take less than five minutes.
- Add one person or ritual that reinforces the behaviour.
- Increase difficulty only after four consistent weeks.
Questions for reflection
- What immediate reward keeps the old behaviour in place?
- Is the desired action specific enough to start without negotiation?
- What would make the good choice the easy choice?
A practical 90-day implementation plan
The value of why don't we do the things we know are good for us? is not in agreeing with the idea. It is in building a repeatable practice around it. A ninety-day window is long enough to create evidence and short enough to maintain executive attention. Use the following sequence as a working plan, adapting the pace to the realities of your role and organization.
Days 1–30: establish the baseline
Begin with observation rather than reinvention. Document what happens now, who is affected and where the current approach creates friction. Complete the first action: Translate one broad goal into a time, place and visible output. Discuss the result with one person who sees your work from a different angle. Their response will help distinguish a real pattern from a personal assumption.
Choose two indicators that can be reviewed without creating unnecessary reporting. One should measure activity and one should indicate quality. A visibility initiative, for example, might track relevant conversations as well as output. A leadership initiative might track whether decisions are made with greater clarity, not simply how many meetings took place.
Days 31–60: run a focused experiment
Use the second and third actions as a controlled experiment: Make the first step take less than five minutes. Then add one person or ritual that reinforces the behaviour. Keep the scope narrow enough that you can observe cause and effect. Explain the experiment to the people involved, including what you are testing, what will remain unchanged and when you will review it.
Record language, objections and unexpected responses. Executive work often improves through better questions rather than more activity. Return to the reflection prompts above and write a short answer to each. If the answers remain vague, the experiment probably needs a clearer audience, decision or standard.
Days 61–90: decide what becomes a system
Complete the final action: Increase difficulty only after four consistent weeks. Compare the evidence with the baseline. Keep the elements that improved clarity, trust, consistency or commercial relevance. Adapt the elements that produced useful learning but not yet the intended outcome. Stop anything that added volume without value.
Finally, assign ownership and a review rhythm. A practice becomes durable when it has a place in the calendar, a person responsible for maintaining it and a reason to be revisited. The aim is not a perfect ninety-day transformation. It is a stronger way of operating, supported by evidence and ready for the next cycle of improvement.
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