The Deliberate #56: The problem with habits and what to do instead
Deliberate Patterns, the mourning of a hockey career, and what to do about meetings overload
Hello! This is The Deliberate and I’m Sam. You signed up for this because you wanted to follow along as I wrestle with the ideas at the intersection of deliberate attention, personal development, and org design. Thanks for being here.
—
I finally sat down and wrote my first critique of habits as the predominant framework for thinking about personal development and growth. This article has been staring me in the face for the better part of a year as I wrestled with the dawning realization that habit change largely isn’t worth the effort. At least, explicitly focusing on habit change isn’t the effort (sometimes it emerges as a nice side effect.)
As I shared in the last newsletter, I’ve become enamored with the idea of Deliberate Patterns as the most fruitful path for meaningful personal development. The article I wrote this week is my best attempt so far at articulating what they are and why they are better than habits.
Read more about the problems with habits and what to do instead here.
—
As part of my exploration of the Write Before Noon Deliberate Pattern, I actually managed to write and publish one other article this week. It’s a bit different than my normal fare. Nothing org design or personal development related, just a personal reflection on the end of my hockey playing days.
Read about how I never properly mourned the end of my hockey career here.
—
Finally, a couple other things I read over the last little while that I enjoyed:
I just finished re-reading Mindfulness in Plain English and reading Daniel Suarez’s Daemon for the first time. Both are great, but for (obviously) different reasons.
Until next time!
Care to say hello? Reply to this email and your message will be sitting in my inbox. Prefer Twitter? Find me at @samspurlin.