Habits of Lowly Effective People:

The Power of Utterly Pointless Habits

Self help manuals are inclined to imply that some people are more effective than others; at what?  Making money of course.  Whether anyone should try to emulate such individuals is questionable.  They would probably all agree that some modicum of idealism is needed in addition to the desire to make money.

   If we understand Dale Carnegie's thesis [Author: How to Win Friends and Influence people] it is that successful people use their social skills to win people over; they talk to the lift operator.  This is a perfectly adequate rule of life, though Dale probably had a streak of vicious self promotion which made him such a successful author.  

   A wealth of sacred books have been devoted to the theme of 'how to improve yourself' with varied success.  The fact is that we can improve ourselves but often at the cost of self delusion and doing down our competitor.  

   What gives business people and their less successful acolytes the right to lecture us on 'Positive Thinking'?[which amounts to saluting success while the ship carries on sinking].  Dealing with setbacks is above all a spiritual adventure. 

 Humans have the ability to ignore and override all evidence to suggest that they are wrong.  This capacity is widely used by criminals, politicians, tricksters and holy people to achieve the most breathtaking morally sound or dubious feats.  We should not doubt the resilience of the human frame to recover from the most extreme losses but equally we can't expect to obtain the insight 'how is it done?' easily.  We live in a crisis of attribution in which 'the reason I'm successful is almost certainly not the reason I think'.  

  While 'strivers' are completing marathons on adrenaline the work of carers of adult disabled people create a daily miracle of survival which earns no fame and little praise. A habit of talking to people helps both.  

Equally an utterly pointless habit such as playing solitaire or listening to music can ease feelings of stress and worthlessness just as much as a self help manual.