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Chapter 6: Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More.
Reviewed By: Godfrey Shirima
There are tons of ‘anhaaa!’ or ‘mmmmhhhh!’ moments i had while perusing this book. It is nothing short of a miracle if I'm allowed to exaggerate a little bit. I often seek motivation whenever I derail from something worthy doing, however, James Clear kind of made me question where and how I seek motivation and see things from a different perspective.
His idea of ‘One space, one use’ really resonates with me and made me a not so good interior designer for my newer habits. I believe almost all of us have fallen victims to being smart phones slaves and we carry and use our dear best friend to places it shouldn’t be even allowed to cross the entrance gate. I for one, used to enjoy the company of my phone in the washroom, snooping Instagram and chit chat here and there while fulfilling some of very basic human needs. Some of us old enough to see mobile phones revolutionise the way we carry ourselves even in places of worship, it is a pity how these best friends of ours managed to invade and gain access to such places. I had to do something about this bad habit of mine. From the tips outlined in this chapter and instead of carrying my best friend ‘smartphone’ to the washroom I replace it by putting a small book and actually looking for the door sign that says ‘no phones allowed!!’. I change the environment by incorporating a small book, limiting exposure to my phone, while at the same time making it so easy to grab the book and read 1 page whenever I visit that important room in my house. You see, One space, one use with a little mix of improving my reading habit.
It is true that if you associate environment and a habit you wish to create or abolish, it is more effective than mare motivation you can get from the likes of Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook posts.
The most powerful of all human sensory abilities is Vision so he says, I couldn’t agree with him more on this. Yes, we need to touch, to hear, to smell and taste of course, however, our abilities of seeing rules them all. Following James Clear’s suggestion on science of how habits work in chapter 3, where, he outlined simple 4 steps: Cue, Craving, Response and Reward. And what he tries to tell us is if we better our environment then we will feed ourselves with visual cues which are the greatest catalyst of our behaviour. In the book, he mentioned and elaborated examples of designing your room or house to serve the purpose of one space, one use. I have automatically programmed myself and my family to only sit on the sitting room couch on Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays. The rest of the days, we are busy with other routines and this has unconsciously made us not watch TV during weekdays as well as for me not to play video games. I have so many examples to share with you to drive home what i learnt from this chapter, however, I don’t wish to bore you with yet another long read.
To conclude my simple review of this chapter, I think the author has made it clear the idea of associating your environment with the habit you wish to start or quit. He really made sure the chapter fits well with other brilliant ideas packed in this book. To make an impact towards one’s personal development especially improving or starting a habit, if you manage to follow even a quarter of what James Clear suggests in this book, you will come out knowing more about yourself than ever before. I recommended this book to so many friends of mine, and I will definitely recommend a thousand more (I can’t wait for my daughters to read this book when they come of age), until then, happy reading everyone.
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