Habit builds up energy over time. The repetition of any action–good or evil–generates power. Energy concentrates and accumulates. Bad habits become harder to break. But good habits do too.
If we think about collective endeavors, like team sports or military drills, the process of “training” is primarily the inculcation of habit. Our basketball coach makes us go to practice every day. He’ll bench us if we’re late or miss entirely. Why? Because he knows how powerful habit is, for good or ill. In the army we run Immediate Action Drills in case we’re ambushed or come under fire. Why? So we don’t have to think when trouble strikes. Habit will take over and save our lives.
In sports or the military (or any communal endeavor), discipline and habit are imposed on us from the outside. Some VP or senior staffer makes us do it. In the world or the arts and entrepreneurship, it’s different. We’re on our own there. We have to teach ourselves the right habits. Our discipline as artists must be self-discipline. We ourselves have to make ourselves show up, run those lay-up drills, do those wind sprints. We need to reward ourselves when we do well, and take ourselves to the woodshed when we drop the ball.
Steven Pressfield is one of my favorite writers. He writes also about being a writer. His main theme is overcoming resistance - the blocks that put in our own way. But this self sabotage seems to be widespread in more areas of our lives than writing.
I have taken this idea of habits to heart.
I am changing how I eat - creating new food habits
I am changing how I work - cutting out the extraneous - creating a new focus
I am changing how I work - I put in 3 hours of hard writing every day - the book is emerging for real now
Great advice!
