Last time, I talked about the importance of identity and self-image when creating new habits. Asking the big question "Who do I want to become?" is fundamental. How we see ourselves in the future will make it easy in the present to work on those new habits. But just thinking about it is not enough. Crafting an identity takes work. Many times we don't know where to start. So here are a few exercises that have helped me....
As James Clears describes it in his book Atomic Habits when approaching new habits we normally go through a three-step process of results, processes and identity. Most of us go through these steps in a top-down approach. We first think of the results we want, like wanting to lose some weight. Then we think about our processes to achieve the desired results like choosing what diet to follow or what gym routine to try....
When starting to build new habits we must not fall for the trap of going all in all at once. It is OK to be super excited and motivated to improve yourself but if you don't manage your energy correctly you'll burn your fuel too quickly and homeostasis—our natural condition to resist change—will kick in throwing us back to the starting line but with an empty tank. We know it is better to start small....
Friends have been asking me why we named our project Tiny Rockets. What do habit-building and community have in common with small space rockets? I'm glad you asked because they have a lot in common. First, let's talk about the rockets part. For us, a space rocket signifies the future and the road to improvement. Rockets are about dreaming big and aiming for the stars. Building habits is about fueling your internal rocket and fire you up to become better day after day....
Have you ever asked yourself why does the year start in January? Since the times of Julius Caesar the calendar was set to start in the month of Janus, the Roman god of all beginnings, transitions, and endings. How fitting this is, even in modern times. Rather than living life in a continuum with just two endpoints (birth and death), we get to split it into chunks. Every twelve months, after feasting and enjoying time with our loved ones during Christmas, we get a new opportunity....
Growing up I never missed a Formula 1 race. I still remember the adrenaline I felt watching them. I was too young to remember the prowess of Ayrton Senna—perhaps the greatest in the sport. But I reminisce the fierce competition between Michael Schumacher and Mikka Hakkinen. To me—a Ferrari fan—the competition between McClaren and Ferrari was like a fight between good and evil. Then came Fernando Alonso to win a world championship with Renault of all cars....
A few days ago I read this viral Tweet: "Fox News did to our parents what they thought video games would do to us." It hits an interesting point that highlights the widening gap between generations. Replace Fox News with TV and videogames with the Internet, and the gap becomes apparent: “TV did to our parents what they thought the Internet would do to us” If in the past televised news were one of the main and most reliable sources of news to stay up to date in a rapidly changing world; now they're all but a source of entertainment....
Not long ago I read somewhere online the phrase "Do the hard things early in life". On the surface, the phrase is simple enough. It makes sense to do the hard things early in life because one has more energy and fewer responsibilities. But it is also a call to action. We don't know how much life we have left. It's OK to plan for the future, but as Marcus Aurelius said, we could leave life right now....
In a recent Compound Writing call , author Gemma Milne talked about the Theoretical Minimum , a concept popularized by physics professor Leonard Susskind. The idea of the Theoretical Minimum is to find the smallest set of knowledge needed to teach Physics. If we replace knowledge and Physics with anything else, we get ourselves a powerful strategy. Gemma uses it in her writing to give readers the smallest set of information needed to understand and interact with a topic....
As a kid my heroes were fictional. I grew up reading Harry Potter, Asterix and Obelix, and Lord of the Rings. Whenever I faced challenges I thought about the characters in these stories and how easy it was for them to solve everything: Harry had a magic wand, same as Gandalf, and Asterix just had to drink a bit of the druid's magic potion to become invincible. As an adult, I still have heroes....