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Lose the Habits of Losers!
As soon as I spied the book, 'The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People', on the shelf of one of my favourite bookstores, I could tell by the title that I was in for a humorous read. And I wasn't disappointed.
But I was also in for a bonus as well.
That's because the book's subtitle, 'And How You Can Avoid Falling Into Them', gives another clue as to what the contents of this particular book might contain, namely, plenty of pearls of wisdom that you can use to successfully change the way that you interact with others and the world around you.
Once you start reading 'The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People', its message soon becomes clear. It shows you what NOT to do to become a better person.
For instance, consider what Jonathan Biggins, the book's author, has to say about those people who think that one of the ways of maintaining a good relationship with geographically distant friends is to send them an annual form letter at Christmas time, regardless of the fact that the senders of these types of letter rarely ever contact their so-called friends at any other time of the year.
Worse still, far too many people have now got into the bad habit of sending these Christmas form letters electronically over the Net which means that recipients' email in-trays just fill up with even more junk email!
Here's what Jonathan has to say:
'If I could tear e-mails of this sort out of the computer and rip them up, I would. It really makes you feel worthwhile receiving news of a friend when you realise he's sent exactly the same affectionate greetings to 238 other people, including his net-banking facility and service provider. Tedious details of what the kids have done, where they went on their holiday and the discount rate they got on the room and airport transfer, the demise of a pet you've never met and the comforting reassurance that they'll be thinking of you when they pop a bubbly on Christmas Day … They could pop an aortic valve and you'd feel nothing'.
Or here's another example from the book of a bad habit that losers of the world frequently adopt, that of, as Jonathan so correctly points out, 'doing things because you feel you should, rather than because you want to'.
Jonathan says that 'more often than not, we feel guilty if we fail to discharge some sort of obligational duty, like sending thank you cards or remembering a birthday. This is not genuine guilt; this is fear of being judged for not doing something that you didn’t really want to do in the first place. Feel selfish and thankless by all means but not guilty. If you genuinely want to send thank you cards you will; to do so under duress rather misses the point. Don't say 'I feel guilty about not ringing Aunty Pip on her birthday' – either get on the phone or forget it. Don't use perceived guilt as an excuse for inaction'.
The habits contained in the book have been conveniently organized into categories, thus allowing you to quickly find any ingrained habits that you may want to rid yourself of. Just some examples of those categories are the following (I have also included one of the titles of the habits from each category to give you an idea of the sort of content that you can expect to find in each of the different categories):
• What's the Rush?: Habit 30 – Putting off until tomorrow what you should have done yesterday.
• Fear of Disappointment: Habit 35 – Accepting too much responsibility for your actions.
• It's a Worry: Habit 65 – Forgetting to change the things you can while worrying about the things you can't.
• Well, If That's What You Think of Me: Habit 92 – Only respecting the opinions of those who agree with you.
• Let's Get Personal: Habit 132 – Trying to be funny every waking hour.
• Why Can't I Have That?: Habit 336 – Believing airline lounges are exclusive and the mahogany panels are real.
One other point of interest.
If you highly value order and correct sequencing in your life, then be prepared for the fact that the 700 habits that have been included in this book are not neatly ordered linearly from 1 to 700.
For instance, habit 704 – 'Having poor arithmetical skills' appears in the book between habit 17 – 'Not distinguishing dream from fantasy' and habit 18 – 'Telling other people your dreams'!
The author of the book, Jonathan Biggins, even raises the possibility that he hasn’t actually included 700 habits into the book – but I was too lazy to count them myself! Suffice to say though, there are enough habits described in the book to keep you amused for hours, just like I was.
In conclusion, there's no doubt that 'The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People' is a funny book to read.
But it's not only entertaining, it's informative too.
Especially if you are prepared to look into yourself, and cringe a little bit, at the highly ineffective habits that all of us have somehow acquired and probably forgotten about.
This is truly a self-help book but not the typical sort! So read it, enjoy it, learn from it, have a laugh, and change yourself! Other people will benefit too from not having to put up any longer with those ineffective habits that you decide to rid yourself of!
For more information about 'The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People', or to purchase a copy of it, go to the relevant section of the 'Melbourne University Press' site, the publisher of the book. To do so now, CLICK HERE