MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors

Eight takeaways:

Our brains are wired to create habit loops– to make repeated tasks or decisions automatic– because they make our lives easier. But as we mature, the brain begins to take longer to make new habit loops. Here are 8 tactics for making a new habit last:

1. Consider your priorities: Identify what matters most to you. Whether it’s people, activities, or values, your priorities will help you decide which habits are most important.
2. Define your why: Reflect on why your habits are important to you, rather than the labor of the habit itself. Focusing on the habit’s impact on your mental, emotional, or physical health over time.
3. Think identity: Focus less on the habit itself and more on the kind of person who embodies that habit. By aligning your identity with the habit, it becomes easier to follow.
4. Prioritize process over outcome: Enjoy the journey. Find joy in the habits you’re building, rather than solely focusing on efficiency or end results.
5. Let go: Use the habit as an occasion to evaluate your life and let go of behaviors, items, or people that don’t align with the priorities/goals driving your adoption of this new habit.
6. Identify cues and pinch points: Recognize and attack triggers or hindrances in your routines that might derail your habit-building efforts.
7. Create accountability: Establish a system of accountability, either with a friend or through commitment strategies. You can use apps or keep personal notes to recognize benchmarks.
8. Don’t get discouraged: Understand that setbacks are normal, and it’s okay to restart. Be compassionate to yourself- demonizing yourself for skipping a few days of a new habit will only hinder your efforts. Every day is an opportunity to start again!

By Lily Silverton for British Vogue:
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Three takeaways:

• The author shares the story of a friend, a major CEO: despite past successes, his recent career struggles have led him to consider removing the trophies of past successes from his office. He feels they mock him, highlighting the downside of holding onto past accolades for too long.
• Trophy-keeping can be an example of what Brooks calls invidious intertemporal autocomparison–an unhappy comparison with a former self. Research shows that the more people champion/covet their past existence, the lower their well-being will be in the present.
• The effort to immortalize our accomplishments is often futile. Triumphs decay with time. However, we can use past achievements to a) celebrate and remember what truly matters in life and to b) guide our paths into the future.
• While you don’t need to erase totems to your past completely, there are three quick ways you keep only the trophies that bring you joy—and that never mock you.
  1. Get the time frame right: Remember that you are not the person you were when you received your trophy, and that we are always evolving. Golfers who always compare that day’s score to their best score ever forget that each game is part of the overall progression of their skill, and that their progress is what should be celebrated.
  2. Commemorate what matters: Hold on to trophies from the moments of personal satisfaction, not external validation. Trophies that remind you of the important moments and concepts in life: love, family, overcoming extreme hardship, will remind you that victories in life are not about momentary validation but propelling you in the right direction.
  3. If the trophies mock you, toss them: The second a physical object brings you anything but joy/pride, toss it. This will bring you into the present, feeling lighter and more in command of your direction.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Three takeaways:

• While the placebo effect in medicine has been proven to be a falsity, the strategic use of placebos in life might be an indispensable tool for your own wellbeing. You can apply “placebo” to happiness as well.
• You can use the power of suggestion to implement a placebo effect on your own mental attitudes when confronted with a negative situation. Here are three simple tips to doing so.
  1. Invent your own unhappiness remedy – you can break a negative cycle of thought or feeling with a trusted source of comfort. A familiar poem, song, walking route, or a favorite piece of gum can remind us that we are not controlled by destructive emotions.
  2. Avoid human “nocebos” – a “nocebo” would be someone or something that reinforces negative mental results. Don’t expose yourself to overly harsh or critical people – many of whom can be found on social media or cable television. If you notice that certain things make you feel worse, avoid them.
  3. Dispense the placebo to others – give that placebo effect to everyone around you, through encouragement, laughter, and other forms of kindness. Doing so will in turn make you happier.
• Negative events are always going to take place, and negative emotions are an appropriate response. However, excessive negativity makes situations worse. Self-managing emotions aids in navigating life’s challenges effectively. A homespun placebo now and again can help.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Three takeaways:

• Psychologists have shown in experiments that having a clear sense of your “true self” or “essence” strongly predicts a feeling of meaning in life than it does a positive emotion and/or high self-esteem.
• Acquiring that sense of one’s true self can take different forms. Some prescribe to the “discovery theory” of life– that our essence exists permanently, and that life is about discovering it – or the “creation theory“, which is the belief that our essence is something we cultivate and build throughout the course of our life.
• The stances can be distilled to three views:
  1. Essence precedes existence: Your essence is ordained before you are born. This is a view shared by many religions, including Christianity, as well as evolutionary psychology, which posits that our essential mission is to survive and reproduce. Thus, it becomes your life’s work to discern and embrace that preordained essence.
  2. Existence precedes essence: This is a view held by more existentialist philosophers, and states that we must create our essence to lead a fulfilling and responsible life.
  3. There is no essence: There is no meaning or purpose in life. This view defies human experience, and the view of life as an enterprise of self-creation.
• If your essence already exists and precedes your existence, you must discover it. You read books, take classes, and learn throughout your life. If you believe that there is no true essence, you are liberated from the duty of building a self but may lack purpose in life as a result.
• If you believe that existence precedes essence, you must choose a set of desired qualities and embody them. You must grow into the person you wish to become.
• Both the “discovery theory” and “creation theory” boil down to a clear message: choose a life of conscious action. Search for and find your essence through action and learning.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
Read the whole story.

Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.