Normal Habits and Quantum Habits
I started researching habits and behaviour change and I came across micro habits. And I started applying micro habits left, right and centre and implementing rapid change in multiple areas of my life.
And what was so shocking was firstly how easy it was to do and secondly how quickly these new habits actually became permanent fixtures in my life. This was such a game changer compared to the 30 day habit change malarky. It turns out you can change a habit in 5 minutes not 30 days!
Then as I was changing multiple habits, I came across something else astounding, I found that different habits have different impacts. You might have a habit that you change as it makes you more efficient, you might have one that which if you do repeatedly it will help you achieve a goal, another type of habit if done has a massive impact on your social life and another habit will actually slow down time itself and make the whole day go by really slowly and the whole day will go like clockwork. Another habit will remove all stress from your life and another one will sort out the stress you feel when you open your email and another one will sort your finances out so you can go on holiday and finally theres one that will just actually make your house into a zen retreat, and the crazy thing is these small micro habits are cumulative.
Meaning that if you add them together and bring them into your life they create a massive change. Roger James Hamilton talks about how these habits are the foundation of any side hustle or entrepreneurial change, without them your foundation for change will be weak. When I tried to do anything I found it really hard but as I began to implement these habits they began to remove a lot of friction in terms of building a business or living a good life with family and friends.
But these habits are not easy, the first one was a life long quest and had to with time. When it came to time I always had a terrible relationship with it. It seemed like deep down inside I loved the thrill of storming through the streets in a high stress, high speed state (I blame action movies for this bad habit!). I had tried to change my relationship with time for years firstly because when things went well it felt so nice and secondly I could feel I was letting people down in a major way.
I remember turning up late for a special dinner at my friends house, I was so late the party was effectively over and food was packed and sitting in the kitchen, I had to microwave the food and sit with everybody while they were having their tea. I had tried everything to fix this time issue but then i read about this habit and said ok let me try this, I tried to do this habit for 8 months and failed then I was listening to my headspace app and it said the key to this habit was to focus on just one element and when i did that to my shock i was able to make it into a habit and then it became effortless but what was more shocking was the effect of this habit.
Time literally began to slow down, I would have tonnes of time in the day and even better than that I began to get to places more on time more effortlessly. And on top of all of that, the pride on my wife’s face just summed it up beautifully and this was the impact of just one of what have come to call quantum habits. Slowing down time and space, not a bad habit to have as a quantum habit:)