You’ve no doubt heard the expression “We are creatures of habit.” There is considerable truth to that statement, for almost all of what we do is the result of habits that have been formed during the course of a lifetime.
Think for just a moment what you do when you wake up in the morning. Visualize each activity in order, from the time you awaken to the time you leave for work. You’ll probably discover that you have a set pattern that is the same each day. When you get into your car and head for work, do you take the same route more often than not? With few exceptions, what we do in a twenty-four hour period demands little conscious thought because we’ve developed habits that help us accomplish a number of things. While some habits are useful in preventing us from having to consciously figure out the mechanics each time we confront a familiar situation, many habits keep us from stretching our capabilities and trying new, and inventive, and possibly better ideas or techniques.
Your ability to build success attitudes, and winning habits is of primary importance in the achievement of your personal goals. By eliminating harmful habits and replacing them with constructive ones, you will begin to assume the behavior required to meet your objectives. First, however, you must understand the general nature of habit formation and habit change.
Habits are formed through a process which primarily involves evaluating a given situation, deciding what action to take, and then reassessing the action to find whether or not it yielded a desirable result. This process takes place in harmony with our self-image and our evaluation of past experiences that were similar. If the action gives you satisfactory results, you repeat it in similar circumstances in the future; if it continues to produce desirable results, the “rightness” of the action is again reinforced. As you continue this behavior, it becomes habitual. You no longer must consciously evaluate, act, adjust, and re-evaluate each situation. The brain automatically produces the pattern of behavior that it has learned is successful.
Think about some of your habits. How and when did you develop them? Are they producing the kinds of results you really want in your life?
Generalization
There is one other characteristic of habit formation which warrants consideration. It is called generalization. Generalization enables you to transfer learning or behavior from one situation to other similar situations. Learning to swim in a lake generalizes to swimming pools and rivers. Learning to tie your dress shoes generalizes to work boots and tennis sneakers. Learning to hit a baseball generalizes to softball. As you can see, generalization even further diminishes the need to relearn and re-evaluate your behavior in every situation, and thus, supports the power of habit.
If habits are learned and designed to eliminate inefficiency, why do people develop bad habits? You can see from previous discussion that habits reduce unnecessary and repetitive behavior; they are learned through judgments and choices which were originally made in a conscious manner. Therefore, we would not knowingly create ineffective habits or behavior patterns. But it is safe to say that most of us do have some habits that are bad and even annoying to others. Every cocktail party has a resident expert who considers himself omniscient on matters ranging from lawn-mower repair to nuclear physics. A legend in his own mind, he will continue giving you his views on a particular topic even though you ceased caring about it two hours ago. Our expert may not recognize his habit. However, it is possible that he formed the habit because he believes that expressing a knowledge of everything gives him some sort of stature or prestige in the eyes and ringing ears of his listeners. He believes, then that his habit is a good one -- it offers him personal satisfaction.
Sometimes a person will consciously develop a bad habit. For instance, an individual decides on a certain course of action and it yields unsatisfactory results. He tries other options, and each one proves unsatisfactory. He then chooses to form his habit based on the action that produces the most satisfying of the generally unsatisfying results. Now he has a habit that eliminates the time-consuming “trying-adjusting-readjusting” process but does not offer a great deal of satisfaction. By comparison, he feels that his habit is a good one.
Even though habits are efficient ways to handle personal business situations, they can hinder your leadership progress. Too much dependence upon habits CAN cause you to reject new ideas, approaches, and methods. You may become too comfortable with your self-image, your results, and the luxury of the automation of habit. Such comforts can lead to complacency. a personality trait that has no place in achievement.
Your job as a leader is to recognize latent skills, talents, and abilities of all those who look to you for leadership.
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