Habits Are Brainless Action

Will Durant said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

I love a good overstatement. William James said, “All our life, so far as it has form, is but a mass of habits…” Actually, we don’t think about what we’re doing between 35% and 43% of the time.

Brainless action:

You don’t think about habitual actions. You just do them. I get up in the morning, drink a glass of water, refill the glass, set it on the counter, and mark it on my calendar. I don’t think about it, I just do it. By lunch, I do that routine four times. The most important part of my routine is marking it down. I don’t think about it when I manually track it.

You automatically wash your hands after using the restroom because you always do. The same goes for making coffee and taking the same exit to work.

Success is a product of brainless repetition.

Radical repetition shapes who you become. When you go to the gym once, nothing changes. You reshape your health when you go to the gym three times a week for three months.

Big is the enemy:

Bad habits are hard to break. Good habits are slow to make – unless you begin small. Leave your phone in the kitchen if you want to give yourself a few minutes of quiet when you wake up.

Small moments are the mundane ingredient of habits. What do you do at the beginning of a meeting? What about the end? Choose a behavior that contributes to success.

Bad or useful:

Bad habits corrode life. Thinking about the next task while doing the current one is a bad habit. It’s useful to be present.

What simple routines help you get where you want to go in life?

What is your advice for someone who wants to develop a good habit?

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Previously Published on leadershipfreak with Creative Commons License

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