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I was searching around the blogosphere and up came this great blog by Leo Babauta
His story begins where mine did, when he quit smoking. And the leverage he has got off that habit change is amazing.
He has a guest post on the site from Scott Young that deals with eliminating habits.
It’s a great post and you can read it here:
http://zenhabits.net/2007/07/20-tricks-to-nuke-a-bad-habit/
If you take an interest in Self Improvement then you will realize that it is a continuous process and success cannot be acheived through reading just one self help book.
One habit that Napoleon Hill discovered successful people practice was what he dubbed R2A2. To gain the benefits you:
Recognize - Recognize a principle, technique or improvement that will benefit you.
Relate - Relate the improvement to your beliefs, experience, business or life.
Assimilate - Assimilate the improvement into your daily routine.
Apply - Take action and make the Improvement a Habit.
Napoleon Hill’s Famous 17 Principles of Success…
If you do some research, and find out about his 17 Principles, what you are about to read may suprise you.
Hill didn’t seem to keep to the same 17 principles, In fact, from my research up till this point I’ve counted no less than 38 different Principles that he’s used throughout his books and publications.
There are a core number that Hill refers to in every publication I’ve read.
But the rest he seemed to pick sometimes calling it a different name, but meaning the same thing such as:
Pleasing Personality sometimes called Attractive Personality
or
Learning From Defeat sometimes called Profiting By Failure or Learning From Adversity and Defeat
Other times throwing in a completely new principle such as Positive Mental Attitude as he became acquainted with W. Clement Stone.
I’m still waiting for a couple more books to arrive before I publish all the different principles Hill came out with.
Let me know if you find any that are not in Hills more famous books Think and Grow Rich and The Law Of Success
“Success is a habit which can be acquired by the exercise of a moderate amount of intelligence, a great deal of hard work, and an unswerving sincerity of purpose.” - Major General Herbert Leonard Grills
Scott Young has a great series on his blog about mastering your habits.
I do not agree with the fact that he says quote
“Habits can’t be removed. They must be upgraded or replaced.”
Don’t think that’s true, I gave up smoking nearly 12 months ago. The technique was to contact my subconscious directly, and it’s not been replaced with anything, well, not consciously anyway!
Check out the link, you will find Scott’s series interesting…
Reading through one of Napoleon Hill’s books “How To Raise Your Own Salary” I come to a chapter about Learning From Defeat.
The Book is a breakdown of what was said between Hill and Carnegie during their meetings in 1908. In my search for confirming the link between Personal development, success and habit I am trying to link up as many connections as I can and here, in this book is one great big humdinger of a connection.
I quote…
Napoleon Hill: “From what you say about habits, I reach the conclusion that Success is a habit”
Andrew Carnegie: “Now you are getting the idea! Of course success is a habit”
“Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.” - Napoleon Hill.
Napoleon Hill. He knew the importance of Habit.
Can you learn the success habit?
Is it possible to get a list of the habits of successful people and then copy their habits until they become your own?
Also Is it just those habits that they DO or is it the Bad Habits that they avoid?
Benjamin Franklin had his theory of Moral Perfection.
His 13 ‘Virtues’ were as follows.
Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Looking at his virtues, it consists not only of habits to do, but of habits to moderate, or give up altogether.
Sometimes it is the things you don’t do, that are the hardest to control.
You can also see that a fine balance in the things you do is important too. Balance is one of the Keys to success.
The Habit Code is based on the Habit Cycle. This cycle is very similar to biorhythms. In biorythms you are governed by three cycles. The Intelectual, The Emotional and The Physical.
In Biorythms these cycles are based on when you were born and a number of days between cycles.
The Intellectual Cycle is 33 Days Long
The Physical Cycle is 23 Days Long
The Emotional Cycle is 28 Days Long
Now, the Habit Cycle is not dependent on a set point in time, doesn’t rely on a set cycle time and isn’t set in stone. It is you that decides on where your ‘levels’ are…or should I stress it is throught your ACTIONS that decide where the level is in each of the three parts of the CODE.
Your Mind, your BODY and your SOUL. These three parts can be named the same as in biorythms namely:
Body = Physical
Mind = Intellectual
Soul = Emotional
And because you can injure yourself in the blink of an eye, or you can get emotionally charged by some outside incident (i.e. seeing your wife give birth to your baby) these three levels are in constant flux and so the graph of the habit code looks more like this:
A new year, and a happy one I hope. If you’ve a new years resolution to stop a bad habit you should take note from the information that most people have broken their new years resolution withing the week. Yep, seven days and your back into your old ways. That’s because new years day is a fixed date and your Habit Code balance will not be in the correct orientation. It is YOU that must fix the date when you want to stop a bad habit or start a new one.
Until you’re balanced, attempting to stop a bad habit will be doomed to failure. I am starting to write a bunch of questions that will give you a habit code balance figure. This will then enable you to find the best time to stop a bad habit…Or start a new habit.
Best Wishes for the new year…It will be a good one.
