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I observe a lot of things which seems analogous to – ‘feel entitled to pick the low hanging fruits but get frustrated a lot when there is hard work involved in picking the remaining fruits’. Growing distractions & instant gratifications have begun to tune us into thinking that if we are destined to land far and high and need to just get the right thing happening. Social media is also only a window of the highlights, nobody puts their tough paths to success thus creating frustration and envy.

Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.

If we look at some of the ads in the newspaper and tv, especially the weight loss related ones; they play according to the weakness of the people who want to get fit and look great but don’t want to eat right, exercise right and sleep well. A lot of people fall for it, for the promise of getting a lot for doing nothing.

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Of course there are few entitled individuals who have a lot due to inheritance, but that is a small number. For a majority of us who have a success story to tell, the path would have always been tough. There is no overnight success, it takes time; we should put in our due efforts.

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I came across this sentence ‘Regression towards the mean’ in the book ‘The drunkard’s walk’. It means that if something bad, unusual or extraordinary happens then it mostly followed by an average acceptable one. It mentions that people are often fooled by this phenomenon, it gives a false sense of control over situations and outcomes. People think that rebuking someone for bad behaviour results in good behaviour, but according to statistics acceptable behaviour always follows bad behaviour irrespective of getting yelled at or not.

A flight instructor’s example is given, the flight instructor thinks that yelling at a pilot making a serious mistakes makes them fly the plane better next time and praising a pilot for a good flight results in a mediocre flight next time; so the instructors resort to only yelling and no praise, but studies show that irrespective of an instructor’s reaction the behaviour of the pilots always fluctuated, a good one was followed by an average one and a bad one was also followed by an average one.

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This shows that we should learn to respond to situations than react to it, if there is something not acceptable it is better to express the impact on us and leave it, than to do something to make sure the person repents for the mistake. It is a tough habit to leave as rebuking and a good behaviour following is very much a positive reinforcement, but if achieved it creates a good atmosphere to allow natural fluctuations take its course without worrying too much about it.

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Anyone who had taken a reliable public transport would have formed micro habits. The first time I am in a new place, taking a public transport to work is always an experiment. As few days pass, the onward connections and crowd patterns get clear and I do my optimisations. I learnt to cut down my travel time 15 minutes every day by always boarding the last coach in the train so that when I alight at my station the coach is always next to the staircase which connects me to the next platform; I quickly walk to the next platform and board the train waiting there. If I miss this train, the next connection was 15 minutes later. Even if the coach is crowded, I bear the discomfort for a while because I know I am going to catch my connection on time.

At work and home also lots of micro habits can be formed. As the name suggests, these are not big ones and often takes only a small effort to make it happen. The first requirement to form micro habits is to have a set routine. Wake up at the same time every day, leave for work at the same time every day, leave office at the same time every day. By having a set routine we tend to observe lots of things and we also reduce the variables, so the number of decisions that needs to be made on a day reduces, because the routine automates most of our decisions.

Micro habits should not be confused with micro optimisation. Micro optimisations are very small gains for a large effort. Micro habits end up in great gains in small timely efforts. All it takes is to have a discipline to follow a set routine, observe the surroundings and make those small adjustments. It may not be easy at first, but once we start practising it becomes part of our thoughts.

Small changes can produce big results…but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.

– Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline