Ponder Post: Habits

No matter how interested I am in reading a non-fiction book, it seems I do better at completing it when I am a captive audience on an airplane. On the flight out to Oklahoma City last week to visit Robin, Jeremy, Autumn, and B-cubed, I finished Better than Before, the third of Gretchen Rubin's books. I'd been eagerly awaiting its publication and had even pre-ordered it through Amazon, but somehow had allowed it to lie ignored in my to-read pile. I thoroughly enjoyed her first book The Happiness Project in which she spent each month during one year focusing on a project that would make her happier. Her third book is about habits.

Following good habits and kicking bad habits can increase happiness; but, to be successful at either, one must first understand one's own personality and customize habit-altering strategies to work for those personal traits. A person who meets all deadlines at work or for others but somehow never gets around to doing stuff for himself may be an Obliger. That person can best form a habit by engaging and committing another person, such as having a walking partner. Someone who dislikes the rules and tends to defy expectations may be a Rebel. A Rebel needs to frame a habit in resistive terms. "Everybody at work thinks I can't resist those cupcakes. I'll show them! I am not going to eat one!" If interested, consider reading this book or alternatively click on http://www.gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2015/01/ta-da-the-launch-of-my-quiz-on-the-four-tendencies-learn-about-yourself/ for a longer discussion on the topic.

In addition to framing a habit in terms of one's own personality, subject matter includes the effect on habit forming of accountability, convenience, and rewards versus treats. The topic of getting started includes the "clean slate" and" lightning bolt" approaches. Gretchen Rubin does a great deal of research and polling of her blog followers to gather the data for her books and this book on habits is no different. It it full of anecdotal curiosities as well and I found it a fascinating read. (Hmm. That still does not explain why it took me an airplane flight to delve into it.) I interrupted Frank many times from reading his own book with "Hey listen to this" or "This is real cool" and then reading him a passage from Better Than Before. Habits are easier to form if they are convenient or pleasurable. Here are two amusing examples:

It is healthier to take the stairs than an ride an elevator or escalator. "When a subway station in Sweden transformed its stairs into a piano keyboard that actually played notes as people walked on it, 66 percent more people took the musical stairs. When the Schiphol Airport put the image of a housefly above the drains of urinals, men began to aim at it - a change that reduced spillage rates by 80 percent."

Gretchen Rubin's first and second books were The Happiness Project and Happier at Home. They were also good non-fiction reads, although I liked the first one better.

    

The second one was a bit repetitious of the first so I think that I did not finish the last 20% or so of Happier at  Home. But that was OK. I enjoyed the first 80% and I have broken myself of the mindless habit of forcing myself to finish a book I start if it is no longer engaging or brings pleasure. What is the saying ? "So many books... so little time." Neither of these books needs to be read before reading Better Than Before. It stands on its own.

I'd recommend reading Better Than Before. It made me rethink my own personality traits and reflect on why some habits are so hard for me to form or break. I am going to try re-framing those habits in a manner that better meshes with my innate traits and see if I am more successful. It is a mind game. But then, I like games.