Why Habits are Everything
Why Habits are Everything
Three Point Thursday #3 | You Quite Literally Are What You Do
Here’s your weekly three-pointer, to open your mind.
The mission of “Three Point Thursday” & about the author here
Your Habits = You
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Will Durant
Habit definition: a routine practice performed regularly; an automatic response to a specific situation; a settled tendency that often occurs subconsciously.
What you call your personality is mostly a product of your habits.
Your habits are constantly reinforcing behaviors that either help or hurt you.
Awareness of what you frequently do and think is important. Because your thoughts and actions compound over time. You want to be compounding in the right direction.
It’s always possible to pick up or drop a particular habit.
But understand that the ones you’ve formed (good or bad) become harder to break as you repeat them over time.
Here’s three aspects of habits to consider:
Your Habitual Thoughts
“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought.” —Marcus Aurelius
Being aware of what swirls around your mind is crucial because it shapes how you see the world.
It determines what you believe is or isn’t possible for you. Avoid convincing yourself that you have deficiencies you’re locked in to (like many people do).
Instead, realize it's always possible to gain new knowledge and capabilities. Because it actually is.
Genetics plays a role in every thing; people naturally have different levels of talent and brainpower.
But skills and intelligence are more malleable than you realize. They are only fixed if you believe they are.
Just listen to a hero of yours on a podcast or read one of their books. Talent may have given them an initial advantage, but they wouldn’t have had success without a growth mindset.
Whether it’s sports, entrepreneurship, investing, art, entertainment, whatever.
They visualized themselves becoming great at something and did because they really believed it was possible.
Amazing things people have achieved were only possible because they thought it was.
It started in the mind.
Your Habitual Actions
Genuinely ask yourself:
What daily activities are making my life worse? (Decreasing my probability of improved health, wealth, and happiness in the future)
What daily activities would make my life better? (Increasing my probability of improved health, wealth, and happiness in the future)
Don’t lie to yourself. Be brutally honest.
Many people say they are this way or that way, but it’s not reflected in their actions.
Saying you’re going to do or stop doing something means nothing. The only thing that matters is what you actually do.
Your Habitual Humans
“Tell me with whom you consort (associate with) and I will tell you who you are. If I know how you spend your time, then I know what might become of you.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Who do you spend time with?
Humans share 99% of DNA with chimpanzees.
The “5 chimp theory” says that you can predict the mood and behavior of one chimpanzee by observing which five chimps they hang out with the most.
Considering how closely related we are to these animals, this should make you think about 2 things:
What chimps are in my tribe?
What types of habits and beliefs are they rubbing off on me?
Understand: Habits, emotional states, and ways of thinking are contagious.
Don’t surround yourself with people who infect you with pessimism, laziness, misery.
Surround yourself with people who influence you with joy, drive, and ambition.
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”—Epictetus
The Success Formula
“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”—W.H. Auden
A math equation that can change your life?
Yes.
I first came across this idea in a book I recommend called “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.
The number (1.00) in the parentheses represents doing nothing, while (1.01) represents small, consistent effort (for any given activity).
It’s raised to the exponent 365, representing all the days in a year.
(1.00)^365 = 1.00
(1.01)^365 = 37.7
With anything, the OK plan you actually follow (37.7) is superior to the “perfect” plan you end up quitting (1.00).
When pursuing a goal, choose imperfect action over perfectionism. Perfectionism leads to procrastination, which leads to inaction.
For any skill, you don’t learn everything, then suddenly do it flawlessly.
You learn by doing. By building volume. The effects of your efforts multiply as you complete more repetitions.
There’s been many times in my life when I’ve thought “Well, I suck at this right now, but if I just start doing it every day…” and my imagination runs wild considering how good I’ll become through practice.
For example: At the end of my sophomore year at Umass, I was frustrated because I could read and write in Spanish but couldn’t speak it that well.
So I committed to having conversations every day online with native speakers. Even if it was for just for 10 minutes.
By doing this every day, my speaking skills compounded.
A year and a half later, I now have command of the language and confidence to talk to anyone in it, which I’ve done while studying abroad in Barcelona (where I’m writing this right now).
So worth it.
Teachings from a Polymath
“Human happiness is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that rarely happen, but rather by little advantages that occur every day.”—Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was not just a founding father of the two-time world war champs and Mr. hunnit dolla bill.
He was also a polymath: a person of wide-ranging knowledge and learning. He was a scientific genius, master of multiple languages, and wealthy businessman.
His daily schedule consisted of asking himself 2 questions: “what good will I do today?” and “what good did I do today?”
It’s simple.
But it shows he was aware of the value of habit development, and how to do it—by really considering how you spend each day.
All the greats have this awareness.
They view every single day as an opportunity to improve and create a better future for themselves.
Summary of the keys to healthy habit development:
Having a growth mindset—Realizing you can always get better and grow even after failing + understanding challenges & receiving criticism can be helpful
Knowing you are what you do, not what you say you’ll do
Surrounding yourself with the right people
The success formula—the massive difference between doing a little versus doing nothing
Accumulate little advantages every day—they will pay off
Combine these qualities with long-term thinking, and you’ll be unstoppable.