The two precepts we keep in mind before we embark on this habit voyage are:
Decide the type of person you want to be.
Prove it to yourself with small wins.
The way to achieve those small wins, and become the person you want to be is by following the four rules James clear offers us:
Make the CUE obvious.
Make the CRAVING attractive.
Make the RESPONSE easy and
Make the REWARD satisfying!
We start with the first law (James Clear’s term): Make the cue obvious.
James Clear writes, “The human brain is a prediction machine. It is continuously taking in your surroundings and analyzing the information it comes across. With enough practice, you can pick on the cues that predict certain outcomes without consciously thinking about it.”
The mind is monkey, picking and jumping from one branch to the other, searching for a cue, which can satisfy its craving. Meditation helps train this monkey mind to behave. Behave to sit on a branch long enough to enjoy the view, or pick on one banana and relish it fully, instead of throwing it away after one bite and jumping off to another branch seeking another banana. This conscious training of the mind to still and focus on the cue, is the starting point in habit building.
Conscious habits, become unconscious responses and our brain and body perform actions without any thought or conscious effort. My blog post on competence grid , posted on 27th Jan-2024, may help make this line more relatable. Similarly, we don’t need to be aware of the cue for the habit to kick in. We notice the opportunity and act on it without putting any conscious attention to the task. As the psychologist Carl Jung says, “Until you make the unconscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Make it obvious to yourself, your habits, your choices and actions. Don’t be judgmental about them and beat yourself up. Be aware and observant and reflect on the two questions above, is this action helping you become who you want to be? And, what small (really small) change can you make to get one step closer to becoming who you want to be.
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