Habits as Servants or Masters

The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.”

Successful leaders know the power of habit. They have learned to move beyond self-discipline by creating habits that align with their goals and dreams. A positive habit will serve that leader well for years to come while a negative habit can become an oppressive master of that same person’s life.

Bad habits develop rather easily like overeating, smoking, or watching too much TV. While repetition of the activity contributes to forming a habit, it is the positive feelings we garner while doing it that makes a habit so addictive. Smokers tout how it relaxes them so it’s easy to see why breaking that habit becomes such a struggle. Or just try to convince yourself that cutting back on fatty foods is important while you’re enjoying the taste of a basket of french fries.

If you have ever attempted to develop a good habit, like regular exercise, you know that it can be a challenge even for someone with lots of discipline. I have been successful at establishing a daily “walking as exercise” habit because I adopted several key ideas.

• First, I focused on the end result I was looking for. By imagining how good I would feel about myself six months down the road I had some incentive to keep at it.
• I also thought about the consequences of not following through. Would I want to be out of shape and unable to complete basic household chores as I aged?
• Finally, I imagined how difficult it would be to follow through on my new exercise routine. Cold and rainy weather would be the perfect excuse to turn off the alarm and stay in bed. It would be dark for many of my early morning walks making it harder to enjoy the experience. Each of these challenges became a reason to keep going and by overcoming them I created a new habit.

Along the way, leaders will need accountability partners who are aware of the habit they wish to develop. I told family and friends about my plans and encouraged them to ask how I was doing and remind me to stay on-track. I have played a similar coaching role with clients who wish to develop their own new habits.

Albert E.N. Gray, a nationally known writer and speaker on insurance subjects, discovered one other significant key to developing habits that will impact your future as a leader. His studies showed that successful individuals “form the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do.” Perhaps that is what Aristotle had in mind when he penned the words I use to open this blog post. When leaders act in the right ways, and do the difficult things that others won’t, they achieve the excellence they seek. They make habits their servants instead of their masters. We would do well to emulate them.