The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg (V2)

During the 2022-2023 holidays, I realized that I have developed some bad habits that have contributed to Type 2 Diabetes, problems meeting deadlines, unfinished projects, being slow to respond to important communications: procrastination, over-eating, and more generally poor self-care, the leading categories. As a reflective, well-educated, and responsible person, I typically know what to do, but having an urgent need, I looked at the comments, feeling I might learn something from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg on Audible. https://www.audible.com/pd/B007C64916?source_code=ASSOR150021921000R, by Charles Duhigg

To help overcome personal challenges, I played recorded books on a loop for decades: Dennis Whaitley, Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar, Les Brown, Brian Tracey, Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, etc.  All made such a difference, I kept listening to them. As my life became busier in all areas, and having become hooked on questions about neuroscience, artificial intelligence, evolution, information science, among other things, I had gone beyond looping self-help books for weeks on end.

I had earned a Master's Degree in Education and had made significant  dietary changes. My blood sugar had been brought under control, mostly through better dietary choices, but also through medication. Now, I felt myself backsliding. My career had stabilized, but once again I was feeling my ability to handle the workload was in jeopardy. My debts were gradually receding from their high water mark, but I started to wonder how I would ever overcome my mountain of debt.

As a Special Education Teacher, I was feeling overwhelmed: too much to do, too little time; everybody depending on me. At home, I felt as though I was not contributing enough to my wife and family. Also, my parents were going through a crisis, and I felt too busy to come to their rescue. I was feeling drained and was procrastinating, feeling paralyzed.

With a tsunami of events looming in 2023, I knew I needed to prepare myself by improving my habits. Since I started reading this well-organized, science based, accesible guide, I've adopted a new approach: "small victories." I committed to apply the Hero's Journey 60 Day Fitness Quest, by N Rey (Darrbee). One belt loop down. My first decision was to set a goal: I will exercise every day.

I decided to apply a small victories approach in the classroom. In consultation with a colleague, after the holidays, I implemented classroom routine to include 20 minutes of ST Math per day at startup and the expectation that students use ST Math for 30 minutes per night. Students with learning disabilities often get overwhelmed with processing new information, which causes many to struggle with approaching multi-step problems in a strategic way. Many lack fact fluency, which creates a barrier to accessing grade appropriate number sense and problem solving strategies. One way I'm addressing this is by evaluating the fact fluency of students and assigning Just For Me Assignments to target this need.

The Power of Habit has the potential to provide me the leverage I need to meet my responsibilities, and gain enough momentum to help carry me through the next 5 years. It's a very persuasive book.

I made a mind-map of the areas of my life where I needed to do something, Daily Habits. I ordered the book on Kindle so I can more easily access the resources in its appendix.