Flashes of Inspiration

I love reading anything which helps me be a better me or which helps me better understand me and why I do the things I do. Along with that, every now and again you come across something that provides that flash of inspiration and just makes everything make sense.

James Clear makes everything make sense, or contributes to it making better sense. I was reading something the other day on Facebook, can't remember what (yes for all its time wasting tendencies there are some really good things to be discovered on there) and a reference was made to James.

So off I wandered to look at what he had to say at http://jamesclear.com/ and then I liked the way he wrote so I downloaded his free book called 'Transform your Habits' which then at his recommendation led to me downloading a book called "The Power of Habit: and why we do what we do in life and how to change" by Charles Duhigg.

Now everything was starting to fall into place and make even more sense. I've been reading it this morning because sometimes we just discover these things at the times when we most need them. In my busy life sometimes I waste a lot of time doing non-productive things, so understanding why we form habits and how they work is extremely interesting.

Take for example my morning pages, every morning for over a year I have written in my personal journal. I started doing it when I was working at Hills and it was my morning ritual to pull into the work car park and then write for 10-15 minutes in my car before I started my work day. Cleared my head and got me focused.

My routine changed when I changed jobs, no longer any work car park and now I'm riding the tram part way to work which is not conducive with writing. So the morning pages have gotten a little haphazard.

Weekends I just forget to do it, but that's because I associate sitting in my car with writing in my journal - the car is the trigger. Without the trigger I forget. If you read either of the books you will understand the concept of the 'trigger' or the 'cue' I'm referring to and how it works.

Reading these books also helps you understand how to create 'habits' to help you achieve those goals that really mean something to you. From exercising to achieving creative success and everything in between, it all starts with setting up triggers that remind you to do things and if you do them often enough they become habits.

That's my simplified version but it makes sense to me of how to create good habits and replace the bad habits with better ones. My latest bad habit is Candy Crush - gosh dang I've avoided this stupid game for so long and then bang now it takes up too much of my time. Time when I could be doing more productive things.

So maybe Candy Crush can be my reward for doing the good stuff.

Anyways I think James came along at a time when I needed to understand ways to better organise myself and achieve my goals. I have some additional planning to do with my big goals but instead of trying to conquer the metaphoric Mt Everest in one single step, I'll start putting the triggers in place to change my behaviour and my habits.

Then one day I'll wake up and realise I effortlessly bounded over Mt Everest because it was just the next logical step in my journey.

Flashes of inspiration - you gotta love them don't you?

Now I'm off to do the final revision for my Strategic Management exam tonight. Reality is that what isn't in my head now surely won't get there now, but I'm quietly confident and not worried - well not much anyway :-) Wish me luck, it's been a while since I done any exams.

Cheers, Fi