THE BIG IDEAS The Power of Habit

Dreamers vs. Doers

Harnessing the Power to Establish Routines that Guarantee Success
Which are you?
in Business and in Life
BY JACK D. HODGE · 1ST BOOKS © 2003 · 115 PAGES
Common Denominator
= Great habits.

Genius
= 14 hrs of practice/day (for 37 yrs.) “Habits are important. Up to 90 percent of our everyday behavior is based on
habit. Nearly all of what we do each day, every day, is simply habit. We all have
Your Daily Drudgery
What’s yours? good habits and bad habits, but if nearly 90 percent of what we do each day is
Replace, Don’t Erase habit, the only way to effect real change in our lives is to effect real change in our
<— How to create new habits. habits. The good news is that we can learn to effectively change bad habits and
The Power of Focus establish good habits that will make us more successful. The key to habit change
Pick one habit. is what this book delivers. It explains why the difference between those who are
Who’s Elmer Williams? successful and everyone else is not found in differences in intelligence, talent, or
The guy who quit.
work ethic; but rather in habits. It explores why habits are so powerful and how
Early Morning we can harness this power to reach our God-given potential and obtain a higher
Is the most critical time.
degree of success. The techniques outlined in this book will empower those who
How’s Your Potential? read it to transform their lives and become more successful.”
Don’t sell yourself short.
~ Jack D. Hodge from The Power of Habit

Habits.

They can make us or break us.

This great little book by Jack D. Hodge is a quick-reading 115 pages of goodness to help us
change our lives by changing the habits that drive us. I found this book when looking for a Note
on *another* book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Check out that Note, too! :)

“Living intentionally takes It’s packed with Big Ideas.

action on our part. We’ve Let’s jump straight in, shall we?! :)
all been equipped with
the tools, abilities, and DREAMERS VS. DOERS
circumstances necessary
“Doers are more successful than dreamers because they take consistent, purposeful action,
to reach our God-given
while dreamers never get started or quickly burn out. Doers have the ability to purposefully
potential. But reaching that
effect change in their lives. They accomplish extraordinary things, whether it’s starting their
potential requires action—
own company, getting elected to public office, running a marathon, or any other extraordinary
consistent, purposeful accomplishment, while dreamers are somehow stuck on the sidelines only dreaming about doing
action. So, what are you such things.
waiting for? Take action
... The force that empowers the doer yet holds back the dreamer is one and the same. It is
today! Set your course and
HABIT.”
utilize the power of habit!”
Dreamers vs. Doers.
~ Jack D. Hodge
Which one are you? :)

I’d say we’re all a bit of both. The good news is that the path to more consistently Doing our
Dream is simple: better habits!

Let’s build ‘em! :)

1 PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Habit

 THE COMMON DENOMINATOR
“The one common denominator of all successful people is a routine built on good habits. The
“Therein lies the key
most successful people in any field—the most successful athletes, lawyers, politicians, physicians,
to changing habits.
business leaders, musicians, and sales people, those who are the best at what they do have one
Getting your conscious
thing in common: good habits.”
to communicate with,
train, and reprogram your Love that.

subconscious.” In his fantastic book, The Greatness Guide, Robin Sharma tells us the same thing: the great ones
~ Jack D. Hodge demonstrate consistency on their fundamentals.

Of course, what our fundamentals are will depend on what we’re up to but the question remains:
What are YOUR fundamentals?

And, more importantly: Are you rockin’ them?

...

Ah, what the heck. While we’re here we might as well take another moment and capture them,
eh?

These are my fundamentals. I shall hereby rock them. Every. Single. Day.
1. _________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________
“The brain can be developed 5. _________________________________________________
just the same as the
(My daily fundamentals these days (Feb 2012)? Meditating before email + Rowing 5k/stretching
muscles can be developed...
before email + working on these Notes before email + eating a huge salad and reflecting on what
it can be strengthened by went well before bed time.)
proper exercise and proper
use. By developing your GENIUS = 14 HOURS A DAY OF PRACTICE FOR 37 YEARS
thinking powers you expand
“Sarasate, the greatest Spanish violinist of the nineteenth century, was once called a genius by a
the capacity of your brain
famous critic. Sarasate sharply replied, “Genius! For thirty-seven years I’ve practiced fourteen
and attain new abilities.”
hours a day, and now they call me a genius.” Clearly Sarasate understood it was not his genius or
~ Thomas Edison talent that made him the greatest violinist of his time, it was his habit of daily persistent practice
that made the difference.”

I just love that.

Reminds me of this great passage from Eric Butterworth’s equally great book Spiritual
Economics (see Notes): “The great piano virtuoso Paderewski was once playing before an
audience of the rich and the royal. After a brilliant performance, an elegant lady waxed
ecstatic over the great artist. She said, ‘Ah Maestro, you are a genius!’ Paderewski tartly
replied, ‘Ah yes, madam, but before I was a genius I was a clod!’ What he was saying was that
his present acclaim was not handed to him on a silver platter. He, too, was once a little boy
laboriously practicing his scales. And even at his peak, behind every brilliant performance
there were countless hours of practice and preparation.”

As we talk about again and again throughout these notes: Genius is made, not born.

Check out the Notes on Mindset, The Talent Code, and Talent is Overrated for more mojo on the
rule of 10,000 hours.

For now, let’s remember the extraordinary hard work the geniuses we admire have put in to
attain their genius. :)

2 PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Habit

 YOUR DAILY DRUDGERY
“I chose daily running to help me develop a higher degree of self-mastery. Teddy Roosevelt chose
“You will never change
a variety of physical activities and exercise. It doesn’t matter what you choose, but it has to be
your life until you change
something you have to force yourself to do. It also has to be something you can do daily. Finally,
something you do daily. The it should be something with beneficial side effects (e.g., exercise provides the benefit of physical
secret of your success is fitness, increased energy, increased confidence, improved cognitive function, etc.).
found in your daily routine.”
Your daily drudgery can be any form of exercise such as running, weight training, swimming,
~ John C. Maxwell
biking, walking, aerobics, yoga, or martial arts. The choices of exercise are nearly endless. But it
doesn’t have to be exercise or physical activity. It can be practicing an instrument, educational
reading or writing, correspondence through letters or e-mail, etc. The act itself is not important;
the consistency of the act is. It’s the self-discipline, the resolve, and the commitment that results
from consistently doing something you hate every day that builds self-mastery.”

“Daily drudgery” as a path to self-mastery.

Love it. :)

First, a reminder on the value of self-mastery. Here are some great thoughts on the subject:

Adam Smith tells us: “Self-command is not only itself a great virtue, but from it all the other
virtues seem to derive their principle luster.”

Thomas Kempis advises: “If you can win complete mastery over self, you will easily master all
else. To triumph over self is the perfect victory.”

Pythagoras puts it this way: “The greatest strength and wealth is self-control.”

In other Notes I echo the nearly identical wisdom from Jesus, Lao-tzu, Krishna, da Vinci and
many others.

Suffice to say: Self-control is essential.

Which leads us to the most important question: How’s yours?

And, what daily drudgery would you like to start rockin’ to build your self-control muscles?

The author of the book chose running a 5k every morning as his daily drudgery. I had recently
started rowing when I read this book. At the time I was rowing 3k per day with the goal of rowing

“Do something you hate

1 million kilometers in 2012. I decided to bump that up to rowing a 5k every morning as my daily
drudgery practice. And I love it.
everyday, just for the
practice.” How about you?

~ John C. Maxwell What daily drudgery will you commit to rockin’?!? :)

REPLACE, DON’T ERASE

“After identifying which habits you wish to develop and which habits you wish to change, it’s
important to understand how changing a habit works. It’s often said that habits are hard to
break. This is an inaccurate statement. Habits aren’t broken; they are replaced. In other words,
you replace, not erase, bad habits. This is an important distinction because if we are to change a
bad habit we must carefully consider which habits we are to replace it with.

... Another friend of mine had the bad habit of watching TV while in bed at night until he fell
asleep. He purposefully replaced that habit with the habit of reading each night in bed until he
was sleepy enough to fall asleep. Again, purposefully choosing new habits to replace old habits
will greatly increase your chances of changing bad habits.”

Alrighty. So, habits aren’t so much erased as they are replaced.

PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Habit 3

 Got it.
“Let me tell you the secret
that has led me to my goal. So... What’s the #1 habit you need to change?

My strength lies solely in What can you replace it with?

my tenacity.”
Let’s make this official.
~ Louis Pasteur
I will replace the bad habit of _________________________________ with the good
habit of ____________________________.

Excellent.

THE POWER OF FOCUS

“We all know how difficult habits are to change, and we’ve established many reasons why this is
so. In order to change habits, we have to get the attention of, communicate with, and train our
subconscious. This is no easy task. That is why it’s so important to attempt changing only one
habit at a time. Changing habits requires the power of focus. To illustrate the power of focus
consider the analogy of focusing light.

Diffused light has very little power, but you can concentrate the energy of light by focusing it.
When rays of light from the sun pass through a magnifying glass, the light is focused and now
has the power to set fire to paper or grass. When light is focused further, such as in the beam of a
light from a laser, it can cut through steel.

Such is the power of focus when it comes to changing our habits. Focusing our conscious effort
on changing one habit at a time gives us incredible power to reprogram our subconscious.
Attempting to change more than one habit diffuses our efforts and drastically decreases our
abilities to change our habits.”

Focus.

It’s key.

Research psychologists echo this wisdom and tell us that we have a finite amount of will power
and that, if we want to succeed in changing a habit, we need to focus on *one* major habit
change at a time.

The good news is that when we focus on that #1 habit that will have the greatest positive impact
on our life, we strengthen our overall will power muscles—which makes it more likely we’ll step
up our game in other aspects of our lives!

Here’s how Heidi Grant Halvorson puts it in her great book Succeed (see Notes): “If you want
more self-control, you can get more. And you get more self-control the same way you get
“Action, action, and still bigger muscles—you’ve got to give it regular workouts. Recent research has shown that
more action.” engaging in daily activities such as exercising, keeping track of your finances or what you
are eating—or even just remembering to sit up straight every time you think of it—can help
~ Teddy Roosevelt
you develop your overall self-control capacity. For example, in one study, students who were
assigned to (and stuck to) a daily exercise program not only got physically healthier, but they
also became more likely to wash dishes instead of leaving them in the sink, and less likely to
impulsively spend money.”

... So, what’s YOUR #1 habit you’re going to focus on?

WHO’S ELMER WILLIAMS?

“A high school football coach was attempting to motivate his players to persevere through a
difficult stretch of close losses on the road. Halfway through the season, he stood before his team
and said, “Did Michael Jordan ever quit?” The team responded, “No!” He yelled, “What about

4 PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Habit

 the Wright brothers? Did they ever give up?” “No!” the team resounded. “Did John Elway ever

“The difference between throw in the towel?” Again, the team yelled, “No!” “Did Elmer Williams ever quit?”

the dreamer and the doer There was a long silence. Finally one player was bold enough to ask, “Who’s Elmer Williams?
is consistent, purposeful We’ve never heard of him.” The coach triumphantly snapped back, “Of course you never heard of
action.” him—he quit!””

~ Jack D. Hodge Hah. That’s classic.

Let’s not quit, shall we?

Reminds me of Napoleon Hill’s mojo on the power of persistence from Think and Grow Rich
(see Notes) where he tells us: “The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and
purposes overboard, and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on
despite all opposition, until they attain their goal. There may be no heroic connotation to the
word ‘persistence,’ but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel.”

Here’s to persevering!

(And, remember Elmer Williams. :)

EARLY MORNING: THE MOST CRITICAL TIME

“Early morning is the most critical time of each day. How you spend the beginning hours of your
day sets the stage for the remaining hours. If you purposefully establish a routine for spending
your early morning as you want to, you will have taken a giant step toward spending the rest
of your life the way you want to. How we spend our mornings is the litmus test for our degree of
self-mastery. Do we wake up with a plan for the day or are we scrambling, wasting time figuring
out what we must do? If we have a plan for the day, do we consistently follow it? Do we follow
a purposefully predetermined, set routine which makes us more efficient and productive, and
allows more time to think and relax? Or do we haphazardly scramble to get ready and out the
door to make it to work just in time? Our mornings expose the power of our routines. Whether
our routines are made up of good habits or bad habits is most evident in how we spend our
early morning hours. If we are to get the most out of life and come closer to reaching our
potential, it’s crucial that we establish good morning habits that allow us to more effectively
utilize our early morning hours.”

How do you spend the early morning hours of your day?

You frantic? Or are you relaxed?

As Hodge advises, our morning routines reveal our overall self-mastery.

How can you improve yours?

(Remember: In many ways your morning is really activated the night before! If you’re eating and
staying up super late watching TV and all that jazz you’re going to have a hard time starting your
day in an inspired way! :)

HOW’S YOUR POTENTIAL?

“Beware of shortchanging your potential by accepting the world “as is” rather than exploring the
possibilities and applying your energies to “what can be.” The following story by Mark Twain
illustrates how people often don’t live up to their potential.

A man dies and meets Saint Peter at the pearly gates. Realizing Saint Peter was a wise and
knowledgeable fellow, he said, “Saint Peter, I have been interested in military history for many
years. Tell me, who was the greatest general of all time?”

Saint Peter responded, “Oh, that is a simple question. It’s the man right over there,” as he

PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Habit 5

 pointed nearby. The man said, “You must be mistaken, Saint Peter. I knew that man on Earth
and he was just a common laborer.”

That’s right, my friend,” replied Saint Peter. “But he would have been the greatest general of all
“If you have any ambitions time... if he had been a general.”
of becoming a doer, you We all can do much more than we think is possible. Don’t sell yourself short.”
must start today. There
As Abraham Maslow tells us, “What one can be, one must be.”
is only today. You cannot
rely on starting tomorrow. What must you be?
If tomorrow is your Here’s to not selling ourselves short as we cultivate the power of great habits!
resolution, tomorrow will
be your dissolution.”
~ Jack D. Hodge

Brian Johnson,
Chief Philosopher

P.S. How about ending this Note with a little contract you can put on your mirror?

“I ____________________________ hereby proclaim that I will commit myself to the

following habit change this ________ day of _______________ , ___________.

Habit change:

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Signature ________________________________________ Date ____________

Witness signature __________________________________ Date ____________”

If you liked this Note, About the Author of “The Power of Habit”
you’ll probably like… JACK D. HODGE

Spiritual Economics
Jack D. Hodge is a mystery man!
Think and Grow Rich
Succeed About the Author of This Note
Mindset BRIAN JOHNSON

Brian Johnson is a lover of wisdom (aka a “Philosopher”) and a passionate

student of life who’s committed to inspiring and empowering millions of people
to live their greatest lives as he studies, embodies and shares the universal truths
of optimal living. He harts his job.

6 PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Habit