13.1 The Power of Habit - Thoughts II

Belief and Small Wins.

These two concepts are delved into in surprising ways for the former and thought provoking for the latter.

The books states that, "for some habits, however,  there's one other ingredient that's necessary: belief" (Duhigg, 2012, P. 79). I completely concur with this observation, but was shocked at the example used to drive home the impact of belief in the creation of a positive habit loop. Death served as the example. More specifically,  it was the tragic death of a coach's son that drove a group of professional football players to believe in their coaches plan. While the book does acknowledge the morbid nature of this example, it was not the only one used in the book. Later on the reaction to a death of an employee by the CEO served to create belief at the C-level and thereby dedication to the CEOs vision. I hope that the author does not rely on this method of delivery in the chapters to come.

The notion of belief did spur thought on belief. Consider:
1. Belief in yourself
2. Belief in your company
3. Belief in management
4. Belief in your product, service or end goal
5. Belief in your employees
6. Belief in your plan

All of these have greatly varying hurdles of height to overcome. Which one is the most important in driving your success in work or in your personal life? Something to think about indeed.

Moving on to small wins. They were covered in a much better light. To define the term, small wins contribute toward the adoption of habits that create overall success. My personal take is that small wins is experience and the culmination of this experience impacts belief in yourself. The point here is that experience in life teaches that certain behaviours result in the rewards you seek. The repetition of success and rewards strengthens these behaviours. A problem that one can encounter is a group of detractors who challenge your habits because they have not seen them work. They have not had your experience and therefore do not relate to habits that may have not garnered the same results. A second problem is a lack of experience and thus not enough small wins to reinforce the habits that drive success. Small wins and personal experience surely deserve more attention and thought.

At this point, the book has my full attention - |I want to see where it takes me and where I take myself after completing it.