Category: Habits

Habits

When should you review, reflect back on your behavior?

Chris Labs

Periodic reflection and review is like viewing yourself in the mirror from a conversational distance. Worrying too much about every daily choice is like looking at yourself in the mirror from an inch away. You can see every imperfection and lose sight of the bigger picture. There is too much feedback. Conversely, never reviewing your habits is like never looking in the mirror. You aren’t aware of easily fixable flaws – a spot on your shirt, a bit of food in your teeth. There is too little feedback. -Atomic Habits, p.247 Continue reading When should you review, reflect back on your behavior?

Habits

You know that flow state, when you feel like you’re “in the zone”

Chris Labs

When you are fully immersed in an activity. Scientist have tried to quantify this feeling. They found that to achieve a state of flow, a task must be roughly 4 percent beyond your current ability. In real life it’s typically not feasible to quantify the difficulty of an action in this way, but the core idea of the Goldilocks Rule remains: working on challenges of just manageable difficulty – something on the perimeter of your ability – seems crucial for maintaining motivation. -Atomic Habits, p.233 Continue reading You know that flow state, when you feel like you’re “in the zone”

Habits, Happiness, Learnings

Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck.

Chris Labs

Genes can’t make you successful if you’re not doing the work. Yes, it’s possible that the ripped trainer at the gym has better genes, but if you haven’t put in the same reps, it’s impossible to say if you have been dealt a better or worse genetic hand. -Atomic Habits, p.227 Continue reading Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck.

Habits

Hard to stick to a habit? Maybe get an accountability partner

Chris Labs

She can create an immediate cost to inaction. We care deeply about what others think of us, and we do not want others to have lesser opinion of us. You can make a Habit Contract and get a friend to sign on it. This person will make sure you stay on track or you will get the stated punishment. To get a Habit Contract template, download it below: -Atomic Habits, p.211 Continue reading Hard to stick to a habit? Maybe get an accountability partner

Habits

Be careful what measure you pick to track a habit

Chris Labs

If you pick the wrong measure, you will optimize for the wrong thing. The dark side of tracking a particular behavior is that we become driven by the number rather than the purpose behind it. If your success is measured by quarterly earnings, you will optimize sales, revenue, and accounting for quarterly earnings. If your success is measured by a lower number on the scale, you will optimize for a lower number on the scale, even if that means embracing crash diets, juice cleanses, and fat-loss pills. The human mind wants to “win” whatever game is being played. -Atomic Habits, … Continue reading Be careful what measure you pick to track a habit

Habits

NEVER MISS TWICE

Chris Labs

This is the most important thing about habits. If I miss one day, I try to get back into it as quickly as possible. Missing one workout happens, but I’m not going to miss two in a row. The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit. -Atomic Habits, p.201 Continue reading NEVER MISS TWICE