What is a habit? Which habits should we inculcate? Why are habits important? How long does it take to develop a habit? Why not wake up each day and just do what it feels like rather than develop a habit? Search for the word habit on any platform – google/ YouTube / podcast platform/ library and you are sure to find tens of videos/podcasts/articles on various topics relating to habits.
Have you ever wondered why are habits so important? Whilst you may already have some perspective, let me just add my thoughts to it. It may be the same as what you have, similar to what you have (fully / partially), different from what you have or totally contradictory to what you have. So, I would be happy to hear your perspective in the comments section of this blog.
Let's start with a few quotes on habit:
- 'Successful people are simply those with successful habits."
- 'Your habits will determine your future.'
- 'Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.'
You will find numerous quotes on habits. Even I have come across numerous quotes, statements, etc. dealing with habits.
But something that really inspired me to think about this subject is a book which I read a couple of months and thus the heading of this blog is inspired by this quote - 'Atomic Habits". A wonderful book written by James Clear. Whilst there are many wonderful aspects that have been covered in this book, the one I really loved the most was 'Improve 1% each day". It feels so simple, so obvious and so usual, one may think what's so great about it. I would agree it is like stating the obvious – but even a couple of months after having read that book it still feels so amazing to me. The other thing the author really focuses on is ‘don't make your habits too burdensome' (not in these exact words).
So let's say you want to develop a habit of reading like a lot of people want to and you are a total novice reader. Say you pick up your favorite genre of book. Just read 5 pages a day (it may take someone 20 - 25 mins in a day). Say you do that for 1 day – 2 days – 3 days…….10 days, if you are able to do that for 10 days – you would have read 50 pages in 10 days – 150 pages in a month – 1800 pages in a year (assuming an average of 200 pages in a book – you would end up reading 9 books in a year). 9 books in a year – for a novice reader – by just reading 5 pages a day – wow !! isn't it amazing? Let's say if you are still a novice reader but slightly serious about developing a reading habit so you read 10 pages a day – that will end you up with approx. 18 books in a year. Wow, isn't it? That is the power of habit.
Now, let's add the power of compounding of habit. Let's assume you are a reader who reads 10 pages in a day and you want to become a very serious reader. But considering you are a novice, say you start with just improvising 1% per day. So, on day 2 you will read 10.1 pages, day 3 another 10.2 pages, day 4 – another 10.3 pages. Now, let's see where can this compounding take us? 10.9 pages a day on day 10 (seems ok?), 13.3 pages a day on day 30 (seems still ok?), Just take a guess how many pages a day you can read on last day of your year 1 (i.e. day 365) if you implement the formula of improving just 1% per day by starting at 10 pages a day. Any guesses? 374.09 pages a day – to be precise. How many pages would you have ended up reading in that entire year if you follow this?? 36,783 pages in a year!!!! Almost 184 books assuming the originally assumed 200 pages per book. Seems huge right? But keep in mind – you were a novice reader intending to become a pro!!!! And you could do this by simply developing a habit and compounding your habit. All you really had to do was read 10 pages a day and improvise just 1% daily!!!
The idea is not really that you actually do read these many books or entirely keep doing whatever you may have decided. But the idea is to show what the true potential can be? Now you can decide a goal for yourself and customize your habits accordingly. This is just one example, now take it to any field you want and try implementing this. Any goal you want to achieve.
CAclubindia
