Saturday, October 1, 2005

21 day habits

I was at a beautiful wedding last night. Now, my question is who books a wedding on Friday night on the last day of the month? Don't they know we have orders to ship? Still, it was nice and I wish Justin and Doreen a long and great life together.

SYNNEX had some positive press in eChanneline including positive mention of Canada.

Today, I am reflecting on habits. I am a big believer that habits make us successful. We are a product of what we repeatedly do. Once something is a habit, it is no longer difficult and requires little thought. For example, do you even think of brushing your teeth? Much of the literature I read say it takes 21 days to form a habit. I am not sure where that number comes from or even that it is accurate.

If I only work on one new habit every 21 days (and it is best not to get overloaded), I can develop 17 new habits per year! This can give me awesome power.

I have a list of habits I want to develop. Now I am figuring out which ones to choose. Most habits on my list do not take too long - less than 10 minutes/day and I know I can do anything for 10 minutes per day.

What I find is sometimes I need to work on a habit more than once. I develop it then lose it so this might take some of the 21 day slots. Still - major opportunity.

Short day today. Off to work out and then to a BBQ at a friends.

2 comments:

  1. The 21 day rule doesn't always work. I diligently worked out for more than 21 days at one point after hearing about this rule. Sadly, the habit never formed.

    I like your Slush Folder idea. I too have started a "follow-up" folder, but I have yet to use it consistently enough to be effective. It is getting there but is also taking more than 21 days to form this habit :(

    Strange combination: Mexico and Canada. Why don't they just give you all of NA.

    Still got time to get together for dinner sometime?

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  2. While the 21 day guideline may have other origins, a predominant one is research by Maxwell Maltz published in his classic book from 1960 called Psycho-Cybernetics. I think it has been reprinted 30 times!

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