Today I revisited “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” through Lao Gao’s video. The most important thing is: understanding the concept of a thing is simple, but how to integrate it into action, and ensure that you won’t forget it?

Habit, as it is called, is to implement concepts into behaviors/actions. If a concept cannot be implemented into action, it is almost as good as non-existent. But the value of habit lies in its unconsciousness, acting and doing things according to habit at all times. According to the Fogg Behavior Model, only by receiving enough positive feedback can we continue along this habit.

For example, everyone knows that debriefing is beneficial and important. But it’s hard to stick to introspective debriefing. The positive feedback from debriefing, if not shared, can be obtained by looking at your previous debriefs, feeling your progress. And if you share your debrief, share your summary, others’ comments, whether positive or critical, can give the author positive feedback, thus continuing to create and forming a positive cycle.

From a personal perspective, we can:

  • Begin with the end in mind

    • What kind of eulogy would you want when you die? Rich? Handsome? A family-loving person? A person who brings warmth to those around you?
    • Change your plans according to the ultimate goal of life, and keep the plan in mind when doing things and planning
    • Possible actions
      • Define the node you want to reach at your current stage
        • What can you do each month to reach this node?
        • Each week?
        • What can you do today, tomorrow to help complete this week’s plan?
      • Ask yourself: did the things you did before actually help you progress towards this goal?
      • If the previous behavior is not effective enough, how to change the behavior to affect the outcome

  • Put first things first: doing important but not urgent things > doing urgent but not important things

    • Urgent but not important things include
      • Things that feel urgent to the brain: replying to WeChat messages, playing engrossing games, binge-watching shows
      • For football fans: watching football matches
        • But if football is one of your life goals, watching it with a purpose is not counted
    • Important but not urgent things include
      • Life-sustaining behaviors: eating, sleeping, exercising
      • Things beneficial to the family: spending quality time with family
      • Things beneficial to social status: making money, learning, helping people around you
    • Possible actions
      • List things that are important but not urgent to you
      • When faced with a choice, think about which category this thing will fall into

  • Be proactive:

    • You can only control what you can control
    • Thinking about things you can’t control is useless
    • Fortunately, you can control your view of a thing