Invest in Habits

If we continue the conversation about developing and maintaining habits. (I am of course, speaking of the good habits, the ones we want more of) It might be important to talk about how one starts. Continuing with last week’s metaphor of habits being a kind of muscle; what if the habit muscles are so weak that even a light weight is too heavy. If this is the case then let us think about culminating habits as an investment. Habits, after all require time, effort, and in some cases monetary investments. So yes habits are an investment.

Fortunately this is the kind of investment that is a sure fire high-return on time spent. The investor billionaire, Warren Buffet said, “Someone is sitting the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” Now you could also say, someone has health problems today because someone gave them cigarettes a long time ago. An important thing to realize is that bad habits, just like good habits are started and perpetuated by yourself. I do not mean to make light of Mr. Buffet’s words.

This is a clever way of speaking about investing. For a moment consider how the habit of reading every morning for an hour might affect you. Think about in one month what returns this habit would have on your life. Or think about how much time you would accumulate if you woke up a half hour earlier. I know none of these come easy to someone starting out. The muscles are being shocked, and it can be very easy and tempting to push that snooze button.

The longer ago our habits are in our past the harder and more difficult they are to change. Not impossible, but it becomes systematically harder as time goes on. Like the student who takes a semester off from college. A semester turns into a year, one into five. Until at last, the idea of going back becomes so distant that it is decided that the effort is not worth the outcome. Still, education knows no age limit.

I do tend to disagree with the advice of “It’s easy to develop good habits when you are young.” I think this is incorrect because while yes, looking back it is always easier to keep something going than it is to start something. I think it is just as difficult at any age to commit to making a change in one’s own life. This type of advice is wistful, and often full of regret. It is a way of sighing and sticking to the norm. It is a blatant dismissal of how a firm decision to commit to building one new habit, can change your life.

People are capable of monumentous change. Unfortunately it is usually heralded by some great misfortune. A loved relative dying from lung cancer that finally galvanizes us to quit cigarettes. It is only when we see our own immortality that many begin to think if only they had stuck to a health routine or done something different. Misfortune may be the strongest factor in people making a change. Consider the woman who finally moves to that tropical country after her mother passes. Because she doesn’t want to end up stuck in the same small town.

But Misfortune does not need to be the biggest driver of change in our lives. The biggest driver of your life, and your habits, is the person you see looking back every morning as you brush your teeth. (a great habit to have). So why do certain people find habits easier over others? While I do not have the research to back up my claim.

I imagine it has to do with childhood development. Consider how much more likely someone is to enjoy reading if his or her parents read to him or her every night. It is not the only factor though, as brothers raised with the same parents, in the same household turn out different from one another. Some people, I imagine are more adept at certain things than others. If someone is born with the naturally gifted ability of creating and holding to good habits, that person will have an easier time entering the habit gym for the first time and developing strong, healthy habits.

Habits are important like investing. The earlier and more you put in the larger the payoff will be in the end. Let’s go back to the idea of waking up a half hour earlier. Doing some calculator math: 365 days times .5 =182.5 hours in one year. That’s a lot of time you can now put into something else. Maybe learning a language or working on a novel? Or just more time with a loved one. Each subsequent year makes that number of 182.5 hours larger. In this case the investment is committing to waking up a half hour earlier every day.

I like to think of the teapot metaphor. I believe I might be the only one who puts it quite this way, but the principal is the same. When brewing tea in a tea pot, if you are making tea for just yourself you would use two tea bags. (One for you and one for the pot) The alternative would be to make a single cup of tea, which requires one tea bag. One requires more from the upstart, but one also yields more. The single tea bag results in one cup or mug of tea. While a tea pot with its extra tea bag doubles the amount of tea readily made, and then some. The interest you get back for putting more into the tea pot.

It is important to have the long view with investing in yourself and strengthening good habits while letting the bad habits regress. I will close this post by returning to the idea posed by warren Buffet “Someone’s siting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” Here’s my version. “Someone’s life is better today because that someone made a change a long time ago”.