Habit Themes

Habit Themes are high-level habits which influence a range of habits hierarchically beneath them. Ideally, habit themes are close to the pinnacle of the hierarchy, so they influence all other habits beneath them in hierarchy.

Mindset and Attitude are two excellent examples that are closely aligned to Habit Themes in principle (although they are perhaps deeper).

A Habit Theme can be something abstract like “Prepare Your Tools”. This means to begin each project by gathering, organizing, packing, and so preparing the tools that you need for the future endeavor.

This mindset of preparation apply to every aspect of your life — packing your bag the night before with everything you’ll need for the day to streamline the morning, or planning your next motorcycle trip, to starting a business, or learning a language.

There is an old saying that goes something like, “How you do one thing, is how you do everything.” This is true here.

in that they are more aligned with mindset — in that they define our approach, mentality, and attitude towards everything that we do.

Understanding Habit Themes

Habit Themes actually took me a number of years to fully understand, and actually wrap my head around enough that I could apply them to work, my habits, personal development, and work on them consciously.

I say this since, in my opinion, they are a concept you will need to maintain in the back of your mind, as you gradually figure out the habit themes that actually apply to you, what you want, and how you should practice them.

A part of this journey is essentially understanding yourself. You need to understand your strengths and your weaknesses, going right down to the deeper aspect of your mentality, and even deeper to personality and character, in order to understand what you need to work on. There are aspects to who you are that are at present hidden from your sight — there always are — which you won’t really become familiar with for years to come. (And it will take you a few more years in order to actualize them in a balanced, healthy, powerful, effective, and productive way.) These have an influence on the habit themes you want (and need) to cultivate.

Habits are relatively specific. On the one hand, your habit can be very specific, such as ‘Run 5 km Every Day”. That is a habit. In my opinion, the way that statement is phrased is to me more of a Goal or an Objective. Yet it remains a specific habit.

On the other hand, you can set a habit slightly more abstract, in the sense of building the habit of Daily Training. Within that habit of Daily Training, maybe it is composed of a schedule of Running five times a week, or Climbing six days a week — or both — combined with Strength Training programmed in with Yoga/Asana and Meditation every day. Those are essentially the sub-habits of the habit of Daily Training.

This is a good way to look at building and structuring our habits in a day, since it allows us to break down a habit into required components, helping us to practice, train, and develop ourselves more comprehensively.

Habit Themes are different. They are more abstract, in that they define how we approach a habit mentally, emotionally, and our mindset. They apply directly to Running, Daily Training, Yoga, Daily Study, and any other habit we might wish to cultivate, but they apply to all of them at the same time.

The best way to illustrate this is with a few examples.

A Few Examples of Habit Themes

A few of the habit themes relating to learning that I have developed over the years can be found below. On the left is the habit theme, after is the general habits that follow from that habit theme.

• Finish Everything You Start —
  • When I Start To Learn Something, I Finish It.
• Patience In The Learning Process —
  • Take Thorough Notes On Everything You Learn.
• Single-Minded Focus —
  • Learn One Thing At A Time (In Each Area).
• Approach Learning With Creativity and Intent —
  • When I choose to learn something, I have a reason to learn it, and
  • I use that knowledge immediately.
  • Deconstruct What You Learn —
  • Train The Main Principles With Intent —

Hierarchies of Habits

Habits exist in hierarchies. Using daily training as an example, the idea of training every day is just the general principle.

Discovering The Themes You Need To Develop In Your Habits

There is no one way to discover, practice, develop, and train habit themes. Not least because everyone needs to work on different things. My best advice would be to pay attention to how you succeed and fail in what you do.

If Inconsistency is an issue, there your habit theme will be related to consistency. Such as, I Adhere To My Plan and Schedule Every Day (and I Never Miss A Day). If you are inconsistent in what you do, and notice that you could have performed better if you were consistent:

your jiujitsu comp would have gone better if you didn’t miss any practices, if you trained. If I never missed a day of Anki flashcards, DuoLIngo, Memrise — then I would be far more advanced in my new language without those 6 months off. My grades would be higher if I spent more time on my homework, and studied every day for x hours in order to stay ahead. I would be much further along in my project if I ensured to

There are an extensive range of Habit Themes that we can cultivate, which depend entirely on what we need — where we are strong, and where we are weak. It really does depend on you as an individual. My best advice is that you need to analyze yourself over years and find where your flaws are. If inconsistency is a problem, address that. If Quitting is your issue, then I Finish Everything I Start is an extreme theme to work towards.

Habit Themes Change You

Whatever Habit Theme you choose to work on changes you. You can go from being a person who never finishes anything, to a person a Finishes Everything You Start. Every goal you set for yourselves, you achieve. You ran the marathon you said you were going to run, you finished the degree that you were studying for, you decided to lose weight, changed your diet, exercised daily according to a well-developed program.

This is from the habit theme of I Finish Everything That I Start. And you bled for it in everything that you did. Every run you went on, you finished it, combatting that part of you that wanted to quit, sometimes in just beginning the run, and sometimes in continuing to move when it got hard.

You also worked on this habit theme by finishing the book you started, finishing the series you were watching, sticking with a weight loss journey, finishing the season at a job you don’t like (but committed to), staying with a project at work, pursuing a goal you set for yourself against all odds (and in spite of every failed attempt), and by going back to school to complete your degree.

As I said before, Habit Themes apply to everything that we do. They are more abstract, and apply to how we do what we do (attitude and mentality and approach) and in that way effect everything that we do. They change us on a deep level, and can address deep parts of ourselves that cause problems in our lives, and thus should be approached with care.

Not so that we change in ways we don’t want to change, but so that we change in the most powerful, transformative, and liberating ways for us as individuals.

Notes

Chess Journal

One of the most interesting things about studying chess so far, is the competitive thinking inherent in the game. The nature of the fundamental thought “If I move this pieces here, my oppenent might move