Situational Control

      “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” —Aristotle

Habits control most of what you do. Situations trigger your Habitual responses. So learn to create and control your Habits to control your situations.

There's a Habit maker in us all. We don't think our way into Habits; we do things and they become Habits. Habits aren't even stored in the thinking parts of the brain, they're stored in areas harder to get to. They get special protection; that's how valuable Nature considers habits to be.

    "[There's a sort of] split between the processes that guide our attitudes and the ones that guide our behaviors" (American Psychological Association).

Habit formation is a discipline. It's our master key to professionalism. It's the skill behind our skills. It's the ultimate tool-maker, kit-filler, and First Responder's go-to for building situational control.

What we do daily is mostly driven by Habits, more than by any other factor. It's not our willpower, our motivation, our values, our goals, or our big statements to ourselves and others that drive what we do. Put simply: we get triggered by something, and then we habitually act in ways we've been programmed to act in the present situation. Yes, we do this even when it doesn't align with our deeper (and slower arising) thoughts, feelings, or beliefs. 

    "A habit happens when a [there's a] cue and response. Notice that there’s no room in that mechanism for, well, you. You’re not a part of it... your goals, your will, your wishes don’t have any part to play in habits. Goals can orient you to build a habit, but your desires don’t make habits work. Actually, your habit self would benefit if “you” just got out of the way." —Wendy Wood

Habits are sort of preprogrammed and spring loaded. The research, by the folks who study this for a living, reveals humbling but actionable realities about why and how we habitually act as we do.

We mostly do what we've already done before, like stumbling forward in a sort of mindless momentum, once we've been triggered by something. It's mostly unconscious and repetitive. That's BAD if we're stuck in unwanted Habits. But it's GOOD if we've built wanted Habits. And it's incredibly powerful if we know how to build good Habits on purpose. It get's easier when it's a Habit! 

     "Habits will form and take the effort off your hands." —Wendy Wood

Habits govern our lives. Nearly half of what we do daily is driven by Habits.

     "A stunning 43% of everyday actions are enacted habitually while people are thinking about something else." (American Psychological Association)

So no Readiness kit is complete without the master key of Habit formation skills. To learn how to better form and alter Habits, see these resources:

• The surprising source of what you do. Hint: it's not beliefs or attitudes, it's Habit!
• Great book on habits, based on research
• Great video by straight-talking professor on Habits

You must get your regular, minimum hours of quality sleep. If you don't have a sleep routine, build one. If you don't know much about sleep, then come up to speed. If you don't want to do this alone, connect with a resource.

The more you learn, the more effective you will become in leveraging this crucial skill: sleep.

To glimpse its importance, consider this:  the (sometimes brutal) process of evolution has NOT been able to find a better solution for Rest & Readiness. Evolution created bodies that are streamlined and purpose-built. Anything unnecessary or redundant has been eliminated, or one day will be. But not so with sleep. Think about it: what could be more dangerous and unproductive than being unconscious, in the dark, at night, snoring and making other noises? ANSWER: not sleeping. 

Our systems are hard-wired to perform so well, when rested, that time lost to sleep is more than made up for by those who sleep well. We can all push it a little, going on short sleep for a while, but sleep always requires payback. No one's hacked it yet; no one gets away with sleeping poorly forever. If we don't pay our daily sleep debt, we always pay later and we have to pay more!

So, if your sleep's not optimized, let's get to it! Here are some top resources:

• 6  Sleep Hacks and Sleep For Immunity from Mayo Clinic
• Sleep Hygiene for physical and mental fitness. Keep in mind that, in sleep behaviors, we’re training the ancient brain: think Pavlov’s dog, not Einstein’s chalkboard. We’re training at a level that is pre-language and pre-conceptual:  processes controlled by the ancient brain. So we focus on patterns, routines, and associations. Keep it simple: consciously build and then maintain basic associations (‘after A comes B’) thru good habits. It’s not “thinking,” it’s “doing”. This is gut-level, it’s not striving or thinking your way in… poor sleep will arise and push back if you approach it that way. That’s the wrong level of the brain to be working with. Instead, embrace the simplicity and power of Habit. Also, avoid over-reacting to “fails” in sleeping. Understand that some variation in your sleep patterns is natural and expected. So avoid catastrophizing these natural flows. Hold it all lightly, but still be firm in your commitment to using your good sleep Habits and other tools for improving sleep. 
• Pretty much everything to know about Sleep, from Harvard
• Smarter napping, by Harvard’s Sara Mednick 

Fitness can be, and often is, overdone. You need to be fit enough to do your job. You need to be fit enough to move the energies of the day thru your mind and body. The unfit do not rest well. In fact, they're always busy dealing with the decay of atrophy and systems breakdown. They have greater inflammation, higher pain sensitivity, and lower physical and mental health.

Movement is like a miracle food—think motion is lotion! Life is in motion, in every instance ever discovered: anything said to be alive is moving, inside, outside, or both. 

Movement stimulates growth and regeneration. It directs the bones where to grow dense and where to be flexible (that's why astronauts need treadmills in space: otherwise their bones weaken). Our lymph systems carry toxins away and transport immune factors. Our blood system carry oxygen and nutrients while also removing toxins. Our very cell walls and vessels are kept pliant and strong through motion. Our respiration and heart rates are constantly changing, and this is good: static rates are unhealthy. Static humans are unhealthy. Life moves.

So, if you're not moving enough, let's get to it! Here are some top resources:

• Dial in the Type and Amount of exercise needed, according to Harvard research
• Recognize the under-appreciated mental boost from exercise: "sedentary people are 44% more likely to be depressed" (Harvard)
• Get Real: the best exercise is the one you'll DO: make it yours! Studies show that all populations benefit from exercise, but also that different routines confer different types of benefit: e.g., "...resistance exercise had the largest effects on depression, yoga and other mind-body exercises were most effective for reducing anxiety." (Stanford 2024)

There's no shortage of information about healthy diets. And there's also lots of finger-wagging and fads and influencers hyping Super-this and Super-that foods to the Super Gullible. There's too much information, too little good information, and too much resistance to finding the hard-won truths about nutrition. It's a science, based on biochemistry, physiology, and many other disciplines. Science is hard, but we don't all have to be scientists. It's enough to apply common sense and follow basic guidelines developed by scientists.

Here's a short-cut thru the mess: the basics are still the basics. They haven't been unproven, and most of the new claims out there are not proven. So continue to eat greens and fruit and fiber, while avoiding fried foods, junk foods, artificial foods. Moderate alcohol intake and sweets. 

Live your life. 

It's not about having all the information about diet; it's about taking basic action on the basic knowledge. And taking that action is really about forming Habits, so that it gets much easier and more automatic to eat right. 

If we simply establish healthy basic eating Habits, which must include taking care about the environments we surround ourselves with (places, people, events), the food thing gets much more doable, and enjoyable. 

When you eat better, you can enjoy it at least 3 times more: once during the healthy meal, again while remembering it with pride, and then for the rest of your life as you celebrate wellness. That's 3x more goodness than just being impulsive and out of control with food. 

And we can add at least two more joys: doing good for others and having a happier life! By modeling smart choices for others, you influence them towards the good. And by eating healthily more often, you grant yourself the permission to treat yourself once in a while, with tasty treats, even "junk foods"! Because you've earned it and dangit! some foods that are bad for us in big quantities are good for smiles as small treats! 

It's good for us to get treats and enjoy life, guilt-free, when we won't take it too far. Happiness researchers (yes, scientists study this too!) have found that these occasional pleasures are better for us than constantly denying ourselves small pleasures. 

Moderation and balance are the paths to greater happiness and health.

So, if you're looking for more, here are some good basic principles and resources:

•  There is little doubt about the power of diet to influence health: both mental and emotional. Here is a nice summary of science's basic outlines of a 'healthy diet'. 
• Don't over-do it: stay moderate in your dietary plans and ideas. Beware of 'The Next Big Diet Breakthru" and such hype. Just eat well enough. Don't turn it into a religion. Don't get too strict or too righteous. Don't make it too difficult. Don't imagine magical results. Do stay reality-based and humble. The basics will take you most of the way; the rest is mostly fluff. Focus on the doable. Moderation is about "not making the perfect the enemy of the good. Aristotle called this the Golden Mean. Buddha called it the Middle Way. Grandma called it Common Sense.
• See here and try NOT to feel embarrassed about our gullibility in following "The Next Big" diet fad! This article describes diet fads that really 'sounded good' but were not. Sounding good is no standard of truth. Impressions are easy to make, but evidence rules the day. Science, done properly, is specifically designed to penetrate fluff, to go beyond 'what everybody knows,' and to instead do the hard work of exploring reality to identify the Laws of Nature. Our biases and hopes are many, but Nature cares little for our views: it simply remains as it is. It is for us to discover it, not wish things into being because they sound true or everybody's doing it.
• Eat low to the ground: the power of plant-based items on your plate: greater happiness! (see the science)