How to Form a Habit Part Seven

​While growing up, I would hear the expression, tie a string around your finger. I never saw anyone do this, but it was a "reminder" not to forget to do something important. 

I have no idea where this phrase came from, but it was used especially during the mid-twentieth century. Of course, like many other things, it has fallen to the wayside. It was a "reminder or a "notification of consequence.

Today, we have many more ways to remember important things, even on our iPhone comes with an icon called "reminder." Push comes to shove, we also have note stickers we can put on our bathroom mirror or on the refrigerator door. 

Where am I headed with this?

Apart from inducing the perfect cocktail of brain chemicals that we have been discussing to this point, dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. Reminders or notifications is the groundwork of adopting desired habit or not so desired habits as I will explain.

Sociological research suggests that when a person adopts the "if, then" concept, that individual would be more likely to instill a desired habit by means of association. For example, "if" I am going to leave my home office for a few minutes, a reminder, I "then" will do at least ten pushups against one of my office chairs. I know one person, that when he goes to lower his water level, a reminder, he does at least five pushups against the bathroom sink before he leaves. Over the course of a day, he may be doing seventy pushups, and if he wants to increase his exercise, he just drinks more water. Do you see how it works?

The caveat? This can also instill not so desired habits. For instance, while walking down a city street and the aroma of a bakery hits your olfactory sense, what does it remind you of? It reminds you of your favorite pastry!

 Fortunately, I do not have a sweet tooth, otherwise, I would be in deep trouble with my sugar level.

If you will allow me to be a little cathartic, I just lost a good friend in death a few days ago. He was physically, a powerful man who trained with the best such as those that coached Arnold Schwarzenegger. During his high school years, whether he knew it or not, he practiced the concept of "if, then" and he was loved and appreciated for it.

 Every time, "if" he would see a bully picking on the vulnerable, he "then" would intervene to protect that person, thus, he was love and appreciated by many, that was his reward of which we will discuss later.

Incidentally, he was dubbed as the "bully buster" through is life. He was not only a big powerful man, but his heart was much bigger. What a legacy! 

 Every one of us have choices during life that can make a profound difference in our personal and business career. This trigger is first the reminder or "if," which is only one of the elements that we will be exploring. Before I finish this post, let me say, it is not so much the choices we make in life, but it is your personal “commitment.”