- Jan 13, 2023
The author, who teaches readers how to master their habits, shares a practical approach: During the year he wrote the book, he had his assistant reset the passwords to all his social media accounts every Monday, leaving him unable to log on to any device and forced to work hard all week. On Friday, the secretary sent him the new password, which allowed him to use social media over the weekend until it was reset again on Monday.
So it's not easy to master habits, even for the author himself.
But the book does have something, and I've singled out these paragraphs before: it offers a whole new way of thinking, it's not about goals, it's about the systems that are built around them. Let's say you're a musician and your goal is to play a piece of music. Your system should be: how often you practice, how you break down and deal with difficult passages, and feedback from your instructor.
It is these factors that enable you to achieve your goals. You need to fully understand each of them and keep improving each day. Make the system a part of your life and a source of positive feedback, and then your goals will be achieved.
If I want to be a good writer, burying my head in code every day is not necessarily going to achieve my goal. I should have a reasonable understanding of what kind of system I need to build to achieve this goal and work on each one.
I suddenly realized that many people who are successful in a certain field instinctively follow these rules, at least a lot of people around me do.
Another interesting point of the book is that really creating a good habit requires you to change your identity, starting with: Who do you want to be? For example, I hope that I am a literate person who loves reading, so I force myself to read books and write comments every week. In order to maintain this identity, I do it every week. Finally, I love reading more than before, and my literacy level has been improved.
This article inspired me a lot, including the specific practices, very universal and reference significance.
The book also offers a good strategy (mentioned separately before) on how to develop a habit you don't really want to do, such as working out.
The way to do this is to make sure that this unflattering new habit is tied to something you enjoy doing.
Let's say you hate working out, but you love watching reality TV or gossip. Only allow yourself to watch them at the gym. Watch them as you work out, and you'll develop a good workout habit, which many of you probably do without any training.
Because I found myself using this method to force myself to do things.
The most recent example is morning habits. I've tied early mornings to playing with my phone. When I get up, I can play with my phone for a while. So when I wake up, I don't play with my phone in bed. I just get up and wash my face, brush my teeth, eat breakfast and play with my cat, and then turn on the SWITCH. So my natural waking time has recently changed to around 6 o 'clock, and I'm going to bed earlier than before.
It's called "liking binding," and you can try it. For example, every time you open Twitter, stretch your back, shake your arms, and twist your neck, and then pick up your phone. Soon your cervical spine will be much healthier.
In general, this book is a practical reference book based on human nature, physiology and sociology. It is very effective and I recommend you to read it.