Yesterday my wife and I had a wonderful day together. We listened to several speakers and authors at the virtual Global Leadership Summit.
James Clear, the author of “Atomic Habits” grabbed my attention because I recently purchased his book which has over 4 million copies sold. His message is applicable to those of us invested in Recovery. The first thing he said was, “Excellence is not about radical changes but about accruing small improvements”. If we become 1% better each day at something for a year our total improvement will calculate out to 37.78%.
Tiny changes in our habits require us to be the architect of our habits, not the victim. Time will multiply our habits positively or negatively. Our emphasis is on the trajectory of our movement toward our destination rather than the goal.
If 1% changes matter why don’t we make them happen? We may struggle to meet our goals because we don’t have the right system in place. For me, the 12 steps of Recovery offer a system that I can hold myself accountable to follow. I sometimes regress into believing I am worthless. I turn to the 12 steps and my support group to disrupt my thinking so that I can return to health.
There are four laws of behavioral change:
- Make it obvious – shape our environment. For example, surround ourselves with other people in Recovery
- Make it attractive – verbalize our commitment to other group members, family, friends, etc.
- Make it easy – we must standardize before we optimize. For example, “I will read 31 books this year”. Break it down by committing to read 20 minutes per day. Master the art of showing up.
- Make it satisfying – the goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon the goal is to become a runner.
Every action we take votes for the type of person we are/wish to become.
How can we improve our Recovery today by 1%.
Peace
Larry
email: ljw@superhumanbeing.net
website: https://superhumanbeing.net