Habits I'm trying to build, thoughts on behaviour and indentity

Hey, Friends! 👋🏼

Hope you all had a great last week. I had a good one too. This week, I didn't let my habits slip away.

Journaling

In my last newsletter, I talked about how I'm planning to sit down and journal every day. The particular technique I follow is called Morning pages.

It is the most simplest form of journaling I have came across and that's why its so easy to stick. The idea is, you just write three pages of stream of consciousness. Just whatever comes to you mind. You give yourself the permission to write absolutely anything which reduces so much pressure. Its free form, and its private writing. Its not supposed to be shared, corrected or to be perfect. Its simply writing whatever comes to your mind. And this is what makes it so Cleansing and outpouring. Once you do that first thing in the morning, you mind is now clear for the rest of your day to think clearly and do your best work.

I found that after writing down my thoughts, they bother me significantly less after. I know its written, the thought is capture, and stored somewhere safe. I look forward to doing that every single day. Here's a screenshot from my habit tracker app (it looks so cool).

Walking/Fitness

I suck at taking care of my body. But since recently, I want to take it seriously. I don't wish to be that 30yr old, or that 40 year old who wished they had take care of their body earlier. I have attempted to exercise regularly various times in the past, but I never sticked to it.

This time I'm taking a slightly different approach and starting small.

Currently, I only plan to just wear my shoes, and go out for a 20min walk and do some flexing while walking. What I'm trying to is form a habit of waring my shoes and going out for some physical activity. Once the habit is in place, walking can change into running and I can add few other things as well. But I have realised that If I try to take a big change right from the get go, I won't be able to stay consistent. So, this time - baby steps, a simple walk, three days a week.

Reading

To no surprise - I love reading. It always feels good, weather its fiction or non-fiction. But lately, due to my busy schedule I found it so hard to devote time to my reading. However, I would never want to let go my reading, because 1. I love it, and 2. It has so many things to teach. Needless to say, this is the easiest habit to form, and I'm doing a great job at it.

Building a second brain course

Other than that, as I shared in my previous newsletter, mid-september, I enrolled into Building a Second Brain cohort, which started last week. We just finished the first week which was about Organising the Information in our brains by offloading them to a digital system so we do not forget them, and find them when needed. We learned about creating a digital note-taking system to remember important tasks and consolidate our knowledge from the content we consume. We talked about methods which helps us effectively utilize the information in future projects. Its going great! I'll keep you guys posting.

Okay, all that aside, here are some cool stuff I came across last week.

From desired to default behaviour

A Study by Mark Muraven, Professor at University of Albany, New York, argued that willpower appears to diminish the more we use it. Its so true. Everyone eventually loses the battle with willpower. Sometimes, Its really hard for us to do the things we know we should do. One of the ways Shane Parish Talks about In his New Book, is Automatic Rules.

We learn to follow rules, but not how to use them to our advantage. By using Automatic rules, you can make your desired behavior the default. It removes the friction of thinking, deciding and wondering weather you should do a task or not, and how do you do it. For instance, if going to the gym feels like a chore, you may start negotiating with yourself and skipping workouts. To overcome this, establish a rule to go to the gym three to four times a week without exception. This prevents the internal voice from convincing you to skip and helps you stay on track.

Adopting Flexible Identities

Identities are the pillar of who we think we are. All your thoughts and decisions are downstream of your identity - of who you think you are. When you say you are an Actor, all your thoughts, decisions and actions align with your identity of an Actor. Identities are usually good, and help us encourage certain behaviours. If you call yourself a Good Person, then you will always try to avoid doing anything that a Good Person does not do. You would try avoiding being rude, unempathetic and dishonest. But sometimes, identities create a very strong boundary and may stop ourselves from growing, and exploring versions of ourselves we didn't knew about. We try to stick to our identity even it no longer benefits us, or makes us happy. And its a bad place to be in. One hack to avoid this and leave room for the possibility that your opinion might change in the future - is by associating your identity with the present. This can be done by adopting a simple change in the way we talk to ourselves. Instead of saying "I hate Tomatoes", which does not leave any room for change, we should say "I hate Tomatoes today".

Identities expire. As we grow older, experience new things, go through our lives, our identities, and picture of who we are, is bound to change. And we must embrace the change and not create strong boundaries around who we think we are currently. That is, unless of course you feel like wanting to be a terrorist, or be a bad person. In which case, this is not for you.

Favourite things last week

📹 Podcast: I have been watching this episode by Nikhil Kamath where he discusses how to build brands. Its a very insightful episode where experts from different industries has come together and try to distill their knowledge about building a brand, and share them.

📖 Book: I'm still reading the Dairy Of A CEO, and its going amazing. Highly recommend it. Its not just about building businesses, but principles which helps in all areas of life.

Thanks for reading, Hope you have an amazing next week!

Yash xx