I recently finished reading Atomic Habits, which was superb. It totally flew in the face of most of what I'd been taught about habits and goals. 30 days in and I'm fitter and far more productive, and FAR less depressed about how I'mg oing to get from A to B in my life.
I'll give you spoiler alert on two of the most mind-blowing concepts that are covered: Systems > Goals. Ever notice that a winner and a loser can have the exact same goal? Ever notice that a winner can win success even when not (seemingly) having the same goal as an observer? That's because its not the presence of a goal, but the systems to get you to it faster. Pick a random sport: someone who's already athletic is going to be get better at that sport WAY faster than non-athlete. They have better systems in fitness. More of what makes them succeed is on auto-pilot. Mindblowing. Environment > Goals. What'll make you work out more: gym equipment at home or gym equipment 20 minute drive away? What'll make your diet work better: fridge stocked with wholesome food or fridge stocked with crap? All the willpower in the world won't help you if your environment facilitates bad systems over good. Not using willpower > Gaining willpower (this was a huge one for me). The most successful people don't have a greater pool of willpower. They just dip into that pool less. With better systems and environments, more of the "friction" of habit forming/maintenance is unnecessary. If you have bad systems and environments, you need to withdraw willpower to sustain. Willpower is finite. IN ACTION I have a goal to be "athletic fit" by 45. I'll save you the "before" picture of my pathetic, skinny-fat, pale, soft emasculated physique. Soon as I finished Atomic Habits I had weights on my desk. Been curling with itty-bitty 5 pounders every day. One set of 5s, then double up to 10s every time I feel distracted from my work. Start to feel momentum, add squats. This is *BASIC* unimpressive stuff, but its stacking interest. A little over a month of that and my tummy fat is melting away, added at least an inch on each shoulder, and arms are toning up enough that the wife started taking notice. Again, NOTHING big. Small enough that I'll know I'll do it (tiny, even!). But big enough that I'll notice a difference. If I can get 1% better at 1 thing every day.... that's 350% better by end of year. 3.5X improvement.
In some of the books I've been reading and listening to on Audible, having a system in place, or having the ability to create one that pave a road to success is uber important. If I may expand on the sports analogy in your first point (not totally related, but similar in regards to having a "system"); I've had quite a number of conversations with people and friends about who is the greatest QB of all time in the NFL between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Brady has won 5 Super Bowl in 8 appearances with the N.E. Patriots. Manning has 2 SB wins in 4 appearances (1 win and 2 appearances with both the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos). Brady played in a system created by Bill Belichick, and has achieved unmatched success in that system. There were seasons where Brady was injured for the season, and the Pats still managed to remain a threat and continued winning with backup QB's in place (although they didn't win any SB's). Take Brady out of the Belichick system, and he doesn't have nearly the success he's had in his career. By extention, I place Joe Montana in this category. Not saying at all that Brady or Montana weren't good, or even great QB's, but without the respective systems they were a part of, I don't believe they win as much as they did. Then there's Manning. He was able to create, and place his own system within the context of the offensive system already in place (by whoever the coach was at the time), and in doing so, was able to lead 2 different teams/franchises to Super Bowl victories. That fact leads me to call Manning the Greatest of All Time. But both had amazing success by having systems, whether being dropped into one or creating one, in place. Sorry for the rabbit hole. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Interesting analogy LT. I remember once watching a documentary on Dan Marino. Among many of the people interviewed, one of them was Joe Montana. They faced each other in the Superbowl and their careers somewhat overlapped. I remember when Joe made the comment that if Marino had played for the 49ers, and Joe played for the Dolphins, that the 49ers would have won more SuperBowls because he felt Dan was a better quarterback who didn't have the same advantage of playing in a great system like he did.
Marino was an interesting situation. For all the success Don Shula had with previous QB's, it was almost like Marino was so different that no matter how much Shula tried to mold the system to Marino, there were enough pieces missing that "success" seemed to elude them. It always seemed like the Dolphins had amazing receivers, but zero running game, and I think that always hurt them in the long run. Marino in the Bill Walsh system........we probably wouldn't be sitting here debating if Manning or Brady was GOAT. That might've been historic.
Concurrently alternating between "Of War and Peace," and "Tale of Two Cities." Nice! (Might take awhile).
Currently reading "Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps & Time Lines" received it as a gift from one of our Small Group members.
I'm halfway through Modern Buddhism Volume 1. That was a bucket of icy water over the illusion that Buddhism was some semi-agnostic framework for self improvement. Its 300 pages of stuff like this... "When you sleep, you dream. When you dream, your mind is somewhere that your body isn't. Therefore your body and mind are completely unrelated. Therefore you will be re-incarnated infinitely. Therefore you need to escape. Ipso facto Buddha. QED. SCIENCE!"
Just finished Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Good addition to Atomic Habits, if not quite as mind blowing. Next up is either Rolo Tomassi's "Rational Male" or Jack Donovan's "A More Complete Beast"
Its actuallly Families at the Center of Faith Formation. So far its a review of the trends of family structure and dynamics based on a lot of American research studies although it is broadly translatable here. Our church is part of a larger cohort of other denominational churches looking at generating ideas and tools for families to nurture faith formation for families, especially as the trditional family structure, though still dominant, is sharply changing.