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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​LEADING WITH CHARACTER!
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​​“It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered, or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.”
Amit Ray 

Listen to Story 1. 

​​Introduction

“What will determine the course of your life more than any other thing is whether or not you are willing to tolerate necessary discomfort.”

Barbara Sher

It may seem like a formidable task to somehow incorporate the aforementioned 14 character traits, JJ DID TIE BUCKLE, into our daily lives. Well, what follows is One Marine’s attempt to explain how to do that very thing.

It will involve changing the way we approach life – the way we think and act. It all comes down to identifying habits which support our life’s purpose, and grouping them together in what One Marine calls “Habit Bunches.”

Warning - there may be some of that “necessary discomfort”, mentioned by Barbara Sher,  associated with implementing the ideas that will be presented in the ensuing discussion concerning habit bunching.

Before we actually discuss habit bunching, there are a couple of areas we must touch on first because, before we can replace those habits which are not serving us well, with habits which are more closely aligned with accomplishing our life’s purpose, we must be aware of our purpose and understand the unique power of our procedural memory.

Therefore, the discussion has been divided into 3 major parts: Life’s Purpose, Procedural Memory, and Habit Bunching. 

How Do I Do It?

Life’s Purpose – Simply said, our life’s purpose is the reason for which we were created – the reason for which we exist. We can’t think our way into finding our life’s purpose, we have to do our way into it. There’s no reason for us to be contemplating the cosmic significance of our lives, while sitting on the couch all day eating Cheese Puffs. Rather, we should be getting out into the world and discovering what is important to us. Sitting on the couch eating our favorite snack food is unlikely to help us discover our life’s purpose. 

Discovering our “purpose” in life is not necessarily about some great achievement, but merely finding a way to spend our limited amount of time on earth well – doing something that gives us joy and contributes positively to the world. Our life’s purpose consists of the central motivating aims of our lives - the reasons we get up in the morning. 

Purpose can guide life decisions, influence behavior, shape goals, offer a sense of direction, and create meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation - meaningful, satisfying work. For others, their purpose lies in their responsibilities to their family or friends. Others seek meaning through lives dedicated to service. Some people may find their purpose clearly expressed in all these aspects of life. 

Purpose will be unique for everyone; what we identify as our paths may be different from others. What’s more, what we consider our purpose can actually shift and change throughout life in response to the evolving priorities and fluctuations of our own experiences. 

Knowing our purpose in life helps us live life with integrity. People who know their purpose in life know who they are, what they are, and why they are. And when we know ourselves, it becomes easier to live a life that's true to our core values. 

Listen to Story 2​.

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Procedural Memory – According to Wikipedia, procedural memory is a type of implicit memory and long-term memory which aids the performance of particular types of tasks without conscious awareness. 

Procedural memory is essentially the memory of how to do certain things. Riding a bike, tying our shoes, and cooking an omelet are all examples of procedural memories. 

While it is easy to demonstrate these actions, explaining how and where you learned them can be much more difficult. In many cases, you learn these skills during early childhood. Learning how to walk is one great example. Once this action is learned, you do not need to consciously remind yourself of how the process works. Your procedural memory takes over and allows you to perform the skill without thinking about it. 

Procedural memories form when connections are made between synapses, gaps at the ends of neurons that allow signals to pass. The more frequently an action is performed, the more often signals are sent through those same synapses. Over time, these synaptic routes become stronger and the actions themselves become unconscious and automatic. 

The use of our procedural memory is quite necessary for the efficient and effective incorporation of JJ DID TIE BUCKLE into our daily lives. 

Listen to Story 3​.

“Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things".
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Habit Bunching – We probably all know what a habit is. It is an acquired pattern of behavior that we do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing that we are doing it.

We can develop and reinforce good habits or we can develop and reinforce bad habits. If we aren’t careful, putting on our unhappiness in the morning can become as instinctive as brushing our teeth. And it takes a bit of that necessary discomfort to replace a negative behavior with a positive behavior. It is, as has been said, a challenging “undo-it-yourself” project.

The challenge is to determine which of our actions we should bunch and how we can habituate them. The answer is a process that revolves around our life’s purpose.

First, identify our most important actions, which support our life’s purpose.
Second, group closely related actions into bunches to be performed in sequence at the same time every day.
Third, repeat those bunches every day until they become automatic behavior and are firmly embedded in our procedural memory. 

Approaching life in this manner takes the uncertainty out of our actions and we don’t have to guess what we should be doing and when we should be doing it. It makes life considerably easier and increases our odds for living purposeful, rewarding, and satisfying lives.

Utilizing habit bunches that support our life’s purpose will certainly facilitate the incorporation of JJ DID TIE BUCKLE in our daily lives.

​Listen to Story 4.

“If you pick the right small behavior and sequence it right, then you won’t have to motivate yourself to have it grow. It will just happen naturally, like a good seed planted in a good spot.”
BJ Fogg 

Conclusion 

We probably all ponder, at times, the question, What is my purpose in life? Here are some ways we can find the answer to that question: 

          Prepare to leave our comfort zones.
          Prepare to tolerate some “necessary discomfort”.
          Prepare for a long journey.
          Gather inspiration from those who seem to be happy serving others.
          Get out in the world and try new things. 

Once we are well on our way to discovering our life purpose, we can utilize our procedural memory to embed the actions necessary to carry out our life’s purpose into bunches. We then repeat these bunches at the same time every day until they become automatic on the body/mind. We may not remember explicitly how and when we learned them, but, at the appropriate moment, they are automatically recalled and acted out simultaneously, seemingly without conscious thought. 

The bottom line for habit bunching, then, is to: 

          Determine our life’s purpose as best we can at the present time.
          Become aware of the power of our procedural memory.
          Develop habit bunches that support our life’s purpose.
          Tolerate the discomfort necessary to make our responses to life’s                 challenges automatic, through repetitious, everyday actions. 

Listen to Story 5.

“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.”
Steve Maraboli

​How Do I Do It?