Habit Stacking

Austin likes to wake up early in the morning to do some jogging. He depends on his alarm to wake him and soon as it goes off, he jumps out of the bed to put on the sportswear that he has prepared the previous night before going to bed. He never misses it. Anytime Laurie engages in a domestic fight with anyone, she dashes into the kitchen, reaches out to the chocolate bags and eats as many candies as she could before her nerves calm down.

Did you notice a common trend in Laurie and Austin? Both of them have likely never met before and their backgrounds and personalities may be starkly different. Yet they have something in common. There’s a powerful force in their lives that controls both of them. This underscores the powerful force of habit.

Another example: A man was caught up in the city traffic because he missed his way. He has spent 12 years of his life living in a suburb of Athens. One day after changing his environment, he intended moving to his house and found himself driving toward his old neighborhood; an awkward route to his new home. The force of habit took him to his former home.

When people are used to doing something effortlessly, they refer to it as having become a second nature to them. Yes, habit is a second nature.

The habit has a profound effect on our lives. That’s why some have compared habit to fire. Fire can be a good friend that can be appreciated in the dark, provide the needed warmth and cook our food when we’re in the woods. But, the same fire can be a ferocious foe that can ruin our most valuable possession and threaten our very lives.

With a proper habit stacking, our lives can be climbing a staircase or even an elevator. But stacking a bad habit can put our lives on a spiral staircase downward; it can be destructive. The simplest illustration is the example of the man caught in the traffic. He spent extra three hours in the traffic and missed an important life-changing appointment.

Either good or bad, habit isn’t something you cultivate in a day. It’s not the thing that comes easily or that you have by a mere wishful thinking. A school of thought has it that it takes 21 days to form and cement a new habit. Actually, it can take more than that for some and less for others.

But we’re focusing on the good habit here and all these put together inspired the writing of this e-book to analyze the habit stacking. The first chapter defines habit stacking and expatiates on how to build new habit stacking routine. To drive home the point, the second chapter gives a list of 20 habits of successful people and lists the notable people who have succeeded because of those habits. The third and final chapter dwells on the top habits of a businessman for the sake of young entrepreneur.