Happy Sunday Everyone:
I started using Evernote to write all these Sunday Thoughts a while back, it’s basically a virtual storage facility for every document that’s important to me. This one happens to be the 300th Sunday Thoughts in Evernote. Without thinking it through originally, it’s ironic to me that #300 happens to be the topic of habits. I read the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear a few years ago, I liked it a lot. Ed Mylett just had him on a podcast last week for 52 minutes. As I was listening to him talk about Atomic Habits I was blown away by the content of the interview, not just what’s in the book but the interview itself. I don’t “demand” too many things from my team, vs. “ask”, but I demanded they listen to this.
There isn’t much original content from me on this one. I could write an entire paragraph for what is below in each bullet but instead I’m simply providing the notes I took for myself while listening to the podcast. My hope is you would take the time to listen as well as I’m certain it’s worth 52 minutes of your life. My team and I will be doing our next book report on Atomic Habits. I’m too technically challenged to post the link so can just tell you go to podcasts on your phone, The Ed Mylett Show is the podcast, then “small habits, big results, with James Clear” is the show. BTW-5 million copies of the book have been sold so it’s not exactly a secret, but even if you’ve read it, I’d listen to the podcast again.
Here are my notes to myself.
· when making plans think big, when making progress think small
· aggregation of marginal gains, 1% improvements over time have compounding results.
· excellence is not about radical change it’s about commitment to accruing small improvements day in and day out i.e. 1 push up
· focus on trajectory vs. position. Am I getting 1% better or 1% worse.
· if you have good habits time is on your side, if you have bad habits you’re digging a bigger hole each day.
· each day making a decision to be 1% better or 1% worse is important, daily choices add up.
· compound affect in life allowing small things to stack up over time, good and bad.
· deeper reason for good habits is every action you take you’re casting a vote for the person you want to become. Habits reinforce your desired identity.
· you have proof that you’re trending in the right direction w/ 1% better, this is different than “fake it till you make it” where there is no proof, delusional.
· let the behavior lead the way
· before a habit can be improved it has to be established. It has to be the standard in your life before you can optimize it and scale it up.
· 2 min rules, build a habit that takes 2 minutes or less.
· mastering the art of showing up is what needs to take place first, establish a foothold. Heaviest weight at the gym is the front door.
· if you can’t master the art of showing up, your plan doesn’t matter.
· “habit loops”-4 stages-if a behavior is not rewarding, its unlikely to become a habit. practical application-wanting to read more
o que
o craving
o response
o reward
· Laws:
o make it obvious-
o make it attractive
o make it easy
o make it satisfying
· “show me your habits and show me your calendar and I can show you what your life is going to look like”.
· people that appear to have high levels of will power simply choose environments where they are tempted less.
· social environment, shared expectations, join groups where your desired behavior is your normal behavior.
· “my life is going to be a direct reflection of the expectations of my peer group”. Is my environment supporting my outcomes and my goals in every way?
· sometimes you need a little bit of friction to curtail the behavior to the desired degree (moving your cell phone away from you),
· delete apps
· high achievers-
o reclaim their habits faster than most people. it’s never the first mistake that ruins you, it’s the spiral of repeated mistakes, where they actually become the new habit.
o narrow the focus, up the quality, increase the speed (CEO of Snowflake)
· planning becomes a form of procrastination if you do too much of it, you need to act and experiment.
Please enjoy the rest of your weekend!!