Law Number One

Military analysts can tell the difference between a blip on a radar screen that is an enemy missile and a blip that is a plane from their fleet, even though both are moving at the same speed and altitude and look almost the same on the radar. During the Gulf War, Lieutenant Commander Michael Riley ordered a missile to be shot down, even though it looked exactly like the battleship's planes on radar. This saved the whole ship. He made the right choice, but not even his boss could figure out how he did it.

Museum curators have been known to tell the difference between a real work of art and one made by a skilled forger, even if they can't tell you exactly which details gave them a clue.

When they look at a brain scan, experienced radiologists can tell where a stroke will happen before anyone else can see any signs.

The brain is a machine for making predictions. It is always taking in what is happening around you and figuring out what it means.

When you do something over and over again, like an art historian gazing upon a genuine Rembrandt or a military analyst seeing a missile on a radar screen, your brain starts to pick out what's important, sorting through the details and highlighting the important clues, and storing this information for later use.

With enough practise, you can recognise the signs that indicate an inevitable outcome without thinking about it. Your brain automatically stores the lessons you learn from life. We can't always explain what we're learning, but it's always happening. Every habit is built on your ability to pick up on the important cues in a given situation.

We don't realise how much our bodies and brains can do without us having to think about it. You don't tell your hair to grow, your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, or your stomach to digest. And yet, all of this and more is done by your body on autopilot. You are a lot more than what you think you are.

Consider hunger. How can you tell if you are hungry? There doesn't have to be a cookie on the counter for you to know it's time to eat. Hunger and hunger pangs are controlled automatically. Your body has many feedback loops that tell you when it's time to eat again and keep track of what's happening around you and inside you.

Hormones and chemicals in your body can make you want to eat something. You suddenly get hungry, but you don't know what made you realise it.

One of the most surprising things about habits is that you don't have to know the trigger for the habit to start. You don't have to pay attention to an opportunity to take advantage of it. This is why habits are helpful.

This is also why they are dangerous. As you do the same things repeatedly, your unconscious mind takes over and tells you what to do.

You slip back into old habits before you even realise it. You might not realise that you cover your mouth with your hand when you laugh, apologise before you ask a question, or that you tend to finish other people's sentences unless someone tells you.

And the more you do these things, the less likely you will think about what you're doing and why.

Over time, the things that trigger our habits become so common that we barely notice them. For example, the treats on the kitchen counter, the remote control next to the couch, and the phone in our pocket. Our responses to these cues are so deeply programmed that it may feel like the urge to act comes from nowhere. Because of this, the first step in changing our behaviour is to be aware of it.

Before we can make new habits stick, we need to get a handle on the ones we already have. This isn't always as easy as it sounds because once a habit is deeply ingrained in your life, you do it mostly without thinking. If you don't pay attention to a habit, you can't expect to change it. Carl Jung, a psychologist, said, "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate."

People think that Japan's train system is one of the best in the world. If you ever take a train in Tokyo, you will notice that the conductors do something strange.

Each train operator follows a routine: they point at different things and call out commands. When the train gets close to a signal, the operator will point to it and say, "Signal is green." The operator will point to the speedometer and say the exact speed as the train pulls into and out of each station. The operator will point to the schedule and say when it's time to leave. Other employees are doing the same things on the platform.

Before each train leaves, staff will point to the platform's edge and say, "All clear!" Every detail is pointed out, named out loud, and named.

This method, called "pointing and calling," is a safety system meant to cut down on mistakes. Even though it seems silly, it works very well. Pointing and calling can cut mistakes by as much as 85% and accidents by 30%.

Pointing and calling work so well because they change a habitual level of awareness into a more conscious level.

Because train operators have to use their eyes, hands, mouths, and ears, they are more likely to notice problems before something goes wrong.

I use this process when I travel. When I am getting ready to leave for a trip, I will read out loud the most important things on my packing list. "I've got my keys. I've got my wallet. I've got my passport. I have my phone, my tickets and my bag."

The less likely we are to think about something consciously, the more we do it without thinking. And when we do something a thousand times, we start to miss things. We think the next time will be the same as the last one. We're so used to doing what we've always done that we don't stop to think about whether or not it's right. Many of our failures in performance come from not knowing ourselves well enough.

One of the most difficult things about changing habits is staying aware of our actions. This helps us understand why bad habits can catch us by surprise. For our own lives, we need a "point-and-call" system. That's where the Habits Checklist came from. It's a simple way to become more aware of how you behave. To make your own, list the things you do every day.

Here's a possible place to start your list:

Wake up

Stop the alarm

Look at my phone

Go to the toilet.

Get in the shower

Shave

Brush my teeth

Put on deodorant

Put towel up to dry.

Get dressed

Make a smoothie... et cetera.

Once you have a complete list, look at each behaviour and ask yourself, "Is this a good, bad, or neutral habit?" Put a "+" next to it if it's a good habit. Write "–" if it's a bad habit. If the habit is not good or bad, write "=".

How you rate a habit will depend on your situation and what you want to achieve. If you're trying to lose weight, you might not want to eat a large breakfast every morning.

The same thing might be a good habit for someone who wants to gain weight and muscle. It depends on what you want to achieve.

Another thing that can make it harder to score your habits is that you may have more than one. Both "good habit" and "bad habit" aren't quite right.

There is no such thing as a good or bad habit. There are only habits that work.

That is, good at finding solutions. Even bad habits help you somehow, which is why you keep doing them. Sort your habits into groups based on how they will help you in the long run.

In general, good habits will lead to more good than bad. Bad habits hurt you in the long run. Right now, smoking may help you feel less stressed, but it's not a good habit to keep up in the long run.

If you're still not sure how to rate a certain habit, here's a question that I like to ask: "Does this help me grow into the kind of person I want to be? Does this habit help me become who I want to be or hurt me?" Habits that help you be who you want to be are usually good. Habits that go against who you want to be are usually not good.

At first, you don't have to change anything as you make your Habits Checklist. The goal is to pay attention to what is going on.

Just watch your thoughts and actions without judging or criticising yourself. Don't get down on yourself for your mistakes. Don't praise yourself for your successes.

If you eat a chocolate bar every morning, acknowledge it as if you were watching someone else. Oh, that's so interesting that they'd do something like that. If you binge eat, pay attention to how many calories you eat. If you waste time online, realise that you are spending your life in a way you do not want to.

The first step in getting rid of bad habits is to be aware of them. If you need more help, you can try Pointing and Calling in your own life. Say out loud what you want to do and what you think will happen if you do it. Say out loud, "I'm about to eat this cookie, but I don't need it.

It will make me gain weight and hurt my health if I eat it."

The results seem more real when you say your bad habits out loud. It gives the action more weight and keeps you from falling mindlessly into an old routine. Even if you want to remember something on your list of things to do, this method can help. Saying "I need to go to the post office tomorrow after lunch" makes it more likely that you'll do it. You're making yourself realise that you need to do something which can make all the difference.

Awareness is always the first step in changing behaviour.

Strategies like Pointing-and-Calling and the Habits Checklist are designed to help you notice your habits and the cues that make them happen. This lets you respond in a way that helps you.