AppId is over the quota
Habit. You know, the word that otherwise means 'acquired pattern of behavior,' or 'an addictive practice.' Some of our habits, we're proud of. Other habits, we'd rather not claim as our own vices. So, how do we even go about changing our habits when the power of the pattern seems to override every effort we make?
I'm not going to even suggest it's simple, but I promise it's possible.
Ovid, a Roman poet, brilliantly noted that "habits change into character." Now, a statement like that simply adds to the already-present pressure that bad habits need to abandoned (ASAP!). But, how do we do it? How is it that everything else seems to trump our efforts to change when that's our primary focus and goal?
As I've reflected on the powerful patterns we come to loathe in our lives, I came to three conclusions:
Oftentimes, we label a habit "good" or "bad."The label we give it depends on the outcome it gives us, not the experience it offers.Although we might enjoy the experience to some extent, we decide it's a habit we want to rid, once the consequences of the outcome override the benefits of the experience.Alright, a lot of that may be confusing. So, I'm going to illustrate these 3 points by way of two examples: one professional and one personal; because as we all know, habits infiltrate each area of our lives.
Professional Example:
Let's say Julie, the manager of Team A, habitually cancels meetings. She schedules one team meeting a week for her 8 reports to attend. This time is set aside to allow her team to converse about that week's priorities, so that as a unit, they could come together and tackle things strategically and effectively. Yet, every week, Julie seems to notice that her team members are swamped with work. So every week, she cancels the meeting, hoping that the extra hour of time added back onto their calendars, is helpful. Over time, her team seems frustrated. She notices that they are rude to one another and seem overworked. So, she continues to cancel meetings, hoping that their "overworked" selves will benefit from the time and hoping that they'll be happy to avoid the unnecessary tension that a team meeting would entail. Julie starts to wonder if her habit of canceling is actually to blame.
The purpose behind Julie's actions seemed well-intentioned: "I want to give my team more work time because they seem really busy." But, it was the outcome that eventually caught her attention and made her question the value of her habit: "By removing this team time from their schedule, am I somehow contributing to the team tension that's present?" If Julie were to change her habit, she'd more than likely make changes based on "the outcome" she's observing.
Personal Example:
Jeff has four kids, a loving wife, an incredible executive job, and Jeff serves on the board of three major community organizations in town. He loves to run, but due to his busy schedule, he's put it on the back-burner. His purpose is to make more time for his family, but his outcome is that it's adding to his waistline. Again, it's not Jeff's "experience" that's causing him to label this a "bad" habit (because it allows him more free time), it's the "outcome" that's caught his attention (because the added pounds aren't adding value).
The good news in all of this is that once we can identify the "experience" we're after, we can hopefully find other avenues to pursue that experience without having to maintain our unhelpful habits.
Doug C. Watsabaugh, senior partner at WCW Partners, understands how to meet your unique performance challenges. With more than 20 years of experience, WCW Partners is a performance-improvement company that helps businesses revitalize their results and achieve record-breaking performance.
If you are looking to excel in sales, service or leadership, let Doug develop the capability in you! http://wcwpartners.com/.
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