Habits

James Clear has a great book titled “Atomic Habits”, Here is one of his points in the book. He talks about Marginal Gains. How small improvements over time can make a large difference over time.

Sometimes it is hard to break habits. I formed a bad habit going back a year. Due to the Rona and other things I lost connection with people outside of work. Since we were very isolated I dove into my job. I had been a contractor and this was a FTE role. My experience as a contractor was mainly just keeping the wheels on the bus while others built the next system. Yes, it paid the rent etc. and yes, it was helping the team. I also had to keep track of time and be careful to not work overtime.

So I dove into my job and at times it was overwhelming but I did my best to juggle all the asks. Also I have a hard time saying no to team mates or my boss. I care about the people I work with and if I can be of service to them I will do my best. Since I lost people outside of work; the people at work became more important. I spiraled into focusing on one thing; work. Repeat that for months and it becomes a habit that is hard to break.

I find fulfillment is being of service to others. Internally, it is my co-workers and externally it is the team’s customers. I came across In The Service of Life on a flight to Salt Lake City. It was a last minute flight, booked the night before. Delta was nice enough to charge me the same for first class as coach. I sat next to a man from Scottish Power. He was going to some power plants they bought in Utah. So we talked business processes and lean manufacturing. He asked me why I was going to Salt Lake. In a choked voice I explained that I was going to visit my mom for 2 weeks and work from there. She had terminal cancer. He reached in his briefcase and pulled out a sheet of paper. It had “In the Service of Life” and explained that it had helped him. So I do mean be of service to my team mates. In all my years of work, I have rarely worked with anyone who was incompetent. In fact, I can only remember working with one person who I felt was incompetent. That was years ago. It devastated the team in 9 months.

As Rachael points out helping implies debt and superiority. I view my teammates as at least equal to me. Do we have different skills? Absolutely, to make a great team we must have different skills and experiences. That is a skill difference not a difference in one being superior over another.

To effectively think one must share their thoughts. You can do this by writing them down, The act of writing them down helps to clarify your thoughts. It also allows you to share your thoughts with others and improve your ideas. This is vital on a team. Share thoughts, take in comments, produce better ideas together.

In closing I am trying to change my habits. See the Deyber photo on It is that Time!. I have set myself a very difficult physical challenge. One that I will have to cut back work hours to meet this challenge. It is balance, do something physical and mentally tough. I am hoping it helps me break out of my bad habit.

I like to converse with people and most of my day is alone or responding to immediate needs. I love playing board games for fun with others. To socialize, learn a new game, have some food, but it has been years since that has happened.