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This post should have been published ahead of the preceding post on this subject. I apologise for the error

The law

Habit - V

I need to build up belief in my ability to change. So I pick the habits which can give me a small win. A few small wins is going to build up my confidence in my ability to change.

So I decide to not to carry my credit card in my wallet. That really bottles up my shopping spree. The cue for the compulsive shopping was entering a shopping mall for buying necessity driven purchases like medicine. I still entered shopping mall for necessity driven purchases sans the credit card. I made small purchases with cash. My reward for the shopping spree was the urge to own. It generally originates from "scarcity" mentality. I kept account of the money save by not indulging in a shopping spree and promised to myself that I will plan for a better car. I kept my reward for owning but simply deferred it. 

The great thing with changing a habit is the ripple effect it has on other habits. For example if one wants to change his habit to lazing to a body fitness habit, he will go for a jog or jog a gym. Simultaneously, it is seen that he starts to change other complimentary habits such as diet, not taking the elevator, adopting brisk walking etc. A chain of action is set in motion on its own. 

Change catalyses more changes

I have a friend whom I shall call Ashok. We did our schooling and college together. He was an average student all through. He had a typical interest. He liked to observe the behavior of people in crowds. If Ashok was missing from a class, we were sure to find him in a market place, sipping from a glass of lemon water and intently watching people. he was a late riser in the morning and started his day with a drowse. His parents were not well off and financed his education with difficulty.

In the third semester examination of engineering, Ashok flunked. In retrospect, I feel that this was the crisis point in his life. Ashok made a small change. He started waking up very early in the morning, well before anyone else got up. To pack in his early morning hours, he completed his academic tasks in the morning hours. Gradually he stopped being absent from the class. His crowd watching moved to evening hours after the classes. By the fifth semester, Ashok positioned himself within the top five in his engineering branch. He topped the final semester.

Today, Ashok is the Chief Executive Officer in one of the multinational blue chip companies. He is invited to all top business schools, internationally, to share his wisdom on group dynamics, interpersonal behavior and other people issues. 

It all started with a small change - getting up early in the morning. His transformation has been phenomenal.

As mentioned earlier, the small win habits need not be selected such that they all combine together to realise some predetermined goal. While one small win habit could be "not to carry the credit card in the wallet" to prevent shopping sprees, the other could be "to avoid mid day snacks" to prevent obesity. The idea is to score small wins and get into the habit of winning and shoring up our belief in our ability to change.As such, the ripple effect of the small wins will take care of lot of other complimentary habits.

See you again

Prabir

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