Welcome to Vol. 5 of our Perennial Habits course. Thank you to everyone who voted in our poll; based on the results, our first meetup will be on Monday (3 Jun) at 3:00 pm EST (Register here).
A quick review: our first meditation discussed How to Change When Change is Hard and the need for clarity, motivation, and shaping the path for change. Next, we talked about How to “Think” About Change, which discussed the stages of change and the notion of cognitive flexibility. Then, we explored The Paradox of Small Changes, which focused on thinking big and small. Followed by Becoming Every Day: A User’s Guide on creating a life. Today, we explore our first perennial habit — Discerning the Way.
Discerning the Way
I typically refer to the first perennial habit as “discerning the way,” but I encourage you to call it whatever makes sense to you. The idea connects with “motivation” in The Fogg Behavior Change Model we discussed in The Paradox of Small Changes. As well as stages two (contemplation) and three (preparation) on the stages of change model we explored in How to “Think” About Change.
Discerning the way involves cultivating the habit of self-inquiry. It requires us to contemplate and clarify principles and values that truly matter to us.
In What Do You Want Out of Life, philosopher Valerie Tiberius (a previous podcast guest) writes, “Uncertainty about what matters to you makes it hard to move forward. If you don’t really know what you want, it’s hard to know how to get it.” Likewise, we focused on clarity as a pathway to change in How to Change When Change is Hard.
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