The following contains excerpts from the book, The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg).
The author delves into the subject of how habits are formed in our individual lives, corporations, and societies. He shows how habits can be identified and controlled to our benefit instead of our demise.
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe music is more than sound, it is relationships. One of the most profound aspects of relationships in life is how the subject of Leadership is impacted by personal discipline.
“This book is divided into three parts. The first section focuses on how habits emerge within individual lives. It explores the neurology of habit formation, how to build new habits and change old ones…The second part examines the habits of successful companies and organizations…The third part looks at the habits of societies.”
The only way to successfully gain mastery of one’s musicianship at our music school in Midland, Texas is to develop deeply embedded habits in core competencies, which can take years to refine. However, once they have been established, a wide range of possibilities become available.
These are not just lessons for music-making, but also lessons for life.
Part Two- Habits of Successful Organizations
Paul O’Neal transformed the Alcoa Corporation, “By attacking one habit and then watching the changes ripple through the organization…I decided I was going to start by focusing on one thing. If I could start disrupting the habits around one thing, it would spread throughout the entire company. O’Niel believed that some habits have the power to start a chain reaction, changing other habits as they move through an organization. Some habits, in other words, matter more than others in remaking businesses and lives. These ae ‘keystone habits,’ and they can influence how people work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate. Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything.”
“Keystone habits say that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers.”
Our music school in Midland, Texas helps students identity the core competencies that will produce the greatest results. Focusing on developing a few strategic things as a musician can have far-reaching effects.
“Individuals have habits; groups have routines…routines are the organizational analogue of habits.”
“A huge body of research has shown that small wins have enormous power, and influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the victories themselves. ‘Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage,’ one Cornell professor wrote in 1984. ‘Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favor another small win.’ Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.”
Our methodology at our music school in Midland, Texas is to help students have incremental small ‘wins’ that give them confidence, as we gain proficiency in their unique abilities.
“Keystone habits encourage widespread change: by creating cultures where new values become ingrained…Keystone habits transform us by creating cultures that make clear the values that, in the heat of a difficult decision or a moment of uncertainty, we might otherwise forget.”
In Starbuck’s research, they found that will-power was strategic in establishing good habits in their employees. “Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit of individual success…Self-discipline predicted academic performance more robustly than did IQ. Self-discipline also predicted which students would improve their grades over the course of the school year, whereas IQ did not…Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.”
One of the great benefits to studying in our music school in Midland, Texas is the development of personal, daily, self-discipline. Incremental daily growth is the key to a successful future, not only in music, but in life.
Willpower can be developed. Studies have shown that, “Once willpower became stronger, it touched everything…That’s why signing kids up for piano lessons or sports is so important. It has nothing to do with creating a good musician or a five-year-old soccer star…When you learn to force yourself to practice for an hour or run fifteen laps, you start building self-regulatory strength.”
Starbucks created dozens of routines for their employees which “are taught to use during stressful inflection points” in dealing with customers. “This is how willpower becomes a habit: by choosing a certain behavior ahead of time, and then following that routine when an inflection point arrives.”
Psychologist Mark Moraven stated, “When people are asked to do something that takes self-control, if they think they are doing it for personal reasons- if they feel like it’s a choice or something they enjoy because it helps someone else- it’s much less taxing. If they feel like they have no autonomy, if they’re just following orders, their willpower muscles get tired much faster. “
“For companies and organizations, this insight has enormous implications. Simply giving employees a sense of agency- a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decision-making authority- can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs.”
We endeavor to give the students at our music school in Midland, Texas respect, showing that we trust them. In that trust, they gain a sense of autonomy, which is empowering and helps them take ownership of their own personal growth.
We find that helping students discover their uniqueness, while at the same time training them in core disciplines, that are applicable to everyone’s development, gives them the tools they need to succeed in their musical journey. But also, they learn what it means to take responsibility for their lives, having the capacity to make their own daily decisions to practice and develop, as well as see long-range goals, such as upcoming performances to prepare for weeks and sometimes months away.
It is this kind of daily discipline, coupled with long-range strategic planning and preparation that trains the student in understanding the life-lesson of intentional, habitual, growth.