Today's Challenge:
Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don't feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I'm passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.
Today's Entry:
I believe in habits. Sorry, belief was yesterday's challenge.
Seriously, as a cognitive psychologist, I'm completely convinced of the power of habits. They inhabit every aspect of our daily mental lives — they can drive us to success, and they can destroy us. I'm not sure of much, but I am absolutely, 100%, spit-on-a-snake* sure of this.
I've had some success with building habits, but I also have a bad habit-building habit. I like to launch "Project: Transform Me!" about every 6 months, build a mega-spreadsheet, and take on 10 huge changes. At the end of 6 months, I've usually made 1 of those 10 changes work. It's progress, but my 10% success sometimes feels like 90% failure. Over time, I'm also convinced that the 1 for 10 approach takes a whole lot longer than if I had just focused on 1 at a time. It feels ambitious to take on the world, especially when I feel like I've fallen behind, but it's often counterproductive.
Sometimes, it's a little thing, like flossing. You know the drill — your dentist gives you the 3rd-grade teacher face, you floss like a Tasmanian Devil for a week, and then never touch the stuff again until the next lecture. Floss, rinse, repeat.
So, my challenge for the next 48 hours will be how to drill into my thick skull that building 1 habit at a time is better than pursuing my next 10-point Transformational Mega-plan.
*I'm also pretty sure that no one has ever used the phrase "spit-on-a-snake sure". It just sounded Old-timey to me. Keep in mind that my notion of Old-timey mostly comes from Yosemite Sam cartoons.
