February is here, the month in which most new year resolutions fall by the wayside. I haven’t made my resolutions public because I want to see how many of them make it past this month. You can see this phenomenon in the gym. January is usually the busiest time for any gym with people all worked-up to workout but by February the traffic dies down to its usual levels. There are many theories and studies as to why this happens, but I think it’s just a question of setting expectations. Yes, the new year is a chance to start things anew, but you are still the same you. So if we don’t change what it is that required the resolution in the first place, that resolution itself isn’t going to have much of a chance.
While it is good to have big goals, what we should be focused on breaking bad habits and creating new ones. As you might suspect, this is easier said than done, for by the time we become self-aware of a habit, it is already well, a habit. Yet it is repeated action that begets habit which in turn creates excellence. The correlations between habit and excellence has been a lot in the news lately mostly due to Malcolm Gladwell’s latest installment, but also because of recent press coverage on change. One study however, on swimmers and their stratification I believe brings forth all that needs to be said about habits. The study, conducted by Daniel Chambliss in 1989, makes many conclusions, the most prominent being that excellence is mundane. In fact, Chambliss argues that,
Excellence is accomplished through the doing of actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, habitualized, compounded together, added up over time.
Chambliss argues that competitive swimmers are excellent by repetition. He observed
that the Olympic class swimmer practiced for about the same time as a county
or a league level swimmer, however the Olympic swimmer did things
qualitatively different, focusing on the details and converting them into habit. It was a qualitative improvement, but within the framework of repetition and habitualization.
Now, there are other theories about habits and excellence, and about what drives certain individuals to make excellence itself an habit. Yet, one fact still rings true, all habits start with what we do now in this moment.
Quote of the Day
Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
--Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society
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