The definition of a habit is:
"A settled or regular tendency or practice; especially one that is hard to give up."
Steven Pressfield is an American author who's first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was made into a motion picture starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Matt Damon, and he claims that habits are what separate the pros from the amateurs.
Here's his quote in its entirety:
"The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones."
My takeaways:
Habits - They are of the utmost importance to help us reach our maximum potential. Aristotle recognized the importance of habits over 2000 years ago and claimed "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Freedom - Pressfield claims that "We can never free ourselves from habit" and I agree with him. It is human-nature to have habits and we will always have them, whether they are beneficial habits or destructive ones. They will always be the default mode that our brain falls back on at times. However, while we may not be able to free ourselves of habits, we do have control over what those habits are!
Are your habits amateurish or professional?
Chances are that you have some of both. We all do. No one is perfect therefore no one has perfect habits. A professional undoubtedly has more "professional habits" than the amateur and that's what we should strive for.
"A settled or regular tendency or practice; especially one that is hard to give up."
Steven Pressfield is an American author who's first book, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was made into a motion picture starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Matt Damon, and he claims that habits are what separate the pros from the amateurs.
Here's his quote in its entirety:
"The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones."
My takeaways:
Habits - They are of the utmost importance to help us reach our maximum potential. Aristotle recognized the importance of habits over 2000 years ago and claimed "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Freedom - Pressfield claims that "We can never free ourselves from habit" and I agree with him. It is human-nature to have habits and we will always have them, whether they are beneficial habits or destructive ones. They will always be the default mode that our brain falls back on at times. However, while we may not be able to free ourselves of habits, we do have control over what those habits are!
Are your habits amateurish or professional?
Chances are that you have some of both. We all do. No one is perfect therefore no one has perfect habits. A professional undoubtedly has more "professional habits" than the amateur and that's what we should strive for.
Since we are all trying to be more professional and less amateurish in everything we do here are 2 things we can do to improve our habits:
- Create a new habit: In this earlier post, we talked about making commitments that will get you one step closer to achieving your dream. Take one of these commitments and turn it into a habit. The common misconception is that if you do something for 21 days straight that it "becomes a habit" but the latest research shows that it takes 66 straight days for a new behavior to become automatic. That sounds like a lot, but our brains are stubborn! It takes significant commitment to acheive major change.
- Eliminate a bad habit (and turn it into a good one): This one is challenging! The definition of a habit even has "especially one that is hard to give up" as a part of it. One of the best ways to stop doing something is to substitute that something with something else. Identify a "bad" habit that you currently have and come up with an action that you can take every time your "bad" habit is about to kick in. Replacing that habit will help re-wire what your default.
Doing those 2 things will be a terrific start to improving your habits, which will crucial in your journey of growing who you are.
(Oh....and by the way. If you haven't seen the movie, The Legend of Bagger Vance, I HIGHLY recommend it. It has always been one of my favorites, especially during my time as an athlete.)