Watch Out for Crossing Old and New Habits - Project Hunger Games

Katniss (of the Project Hunger Game Series section of my blog) mentioned a few months ago that after she practiced with someone who was giving her pointers (I believe a scotch doubles partner or maybe a teammate? This is what I get for not going down my to-do list sooner - I lose some of the details!).

As we all know, our game goes down before it goes up when we get lessons or are in learning mode, but she rebounded much quicker than most.  She said she was struggling at first after the practice sessions, but then she started to play better.

My curiosity was peaked! That's not normal, haha.

Why did she play better so soon?

She explained, "The few times I practiced 8 ball after the first session, I was struggling because I was trying to use my new knowledge while still keeping some of my old habits."

Interesting observation on her part.

She added, "And I was getting nowhere lol."

You all know me, so I asked for more specifics, please.

She explained, "I was looking at the table differently, but yet I was not walking around the table, which is a bad habit of mine."

"Further," she continued, "I was not taking the time to truly figure out the table - I was leaning on my old bad habits of just shooting. "

Her great self refelctions and observations are important to share. Don't hang on to your old habits while you are working on new ones - they only get intertwined and become counterproductive, which are of no use that way.

"Tiny Habits" For Our Pool Game

BJ Fogg came up with this pretty cool thing called "Tiny Habits" that I just learned about.

Quickly, let’s look at what a tiny habit is and why they’re so much fun and easy to form.

The Rules

Rule #1: A tiny habit, according to Fogg, is a behavior:

1. You do at least once a day
2. Takes you less than 30 seconds
3. Requires little effort

Tiny habits must match the criteria above because the easier the behavior, the less it depends on motivation.

Rule #2: Tiny habits are designed to come immediately after an existing habit. You use the existing habit to trigger the new tiny behavior you want.

Examples:

• Make your bed immediately after you wake up
• Do a few push-ups after you use the bathroom
• Before going to bed, write in a journal, answering this question nightly: "What amazing 3 things happened today?"

These new "tiny habits" seem do-able, huh?  Doesn't take a lot of time, and most importantly, associate./follow with something you already do.

Now that you know Fogg’s rules, let’s try and apply it to our pool game!

Here are just a few suggestions, I'm sure you could think of a lot more, but this it to start you off:

• After each match you play, write down in a journal something you learned from it.
• Could be something mental or maybe a certain shot 
• Could even be you controlled your emotions that match - what happened?
• Before league, practice your toughest shot at least 5 times.
• I have written about this before - make your hardest shot your favorite
• Before each big tournament (or match) review your mental checklist.
• Checklists are great reminders of what we need to focus on.  And reviewing these before big matches is part of the path to success.

Hope this helps!  And if you start your own successful "tiny habit" and you would like to share it, let me know in the comment section below.  Then I'll do a follow up to this blog to share with others what worked.

Enjoy!