Labor Day and the Value of Newfound Habits

Jackson Browne is one of the greatest singer songwriters of this generation, a Rock-and-Roll Hall-of-Fame member who has sold over 18 million records. 

He started writing songs at the tender age of 16, producing his first solo album at 24 that featured two of his most famous songs. Two years later, he had a best-selling album and a hit song “The Pretender,” exploring the life of a person who is forced to settle for less than expected and be a part of the labor force.

Browne writes:

I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again.

Today, we celebrate all those who “get up and do it again,” honoring the labor force in America, appreciating its contributions to our society. The holiday began in 1887, first in Oregon, then became a national holiday in 1894. 

We may call this Labor Day, but as Browne points out in his song, it’s really a tribute to those who have developed a life-long habit. Doing something over and over again is a habit, which is essential to progress. As leaders, teachers and parents, we have an obligation to those we influence to develop healthy habits that can serve us well for our lifetime. 

“Habits are like shortcuts — they’re things we can do quickly and without thinking because we’ve done them so often they’ve become automatic,” says behavioral scientist Katy Milkman of the University of Pennsylvania.

When we are forced to earn money, or as Browne calls it in his song, “the legal tender,” we can form daily habits. But what happens when the legal tender isn’t part of our motivation? 

We often hear consistency is the cornerstone of developing new habits. However, research suggests there is also a danger of being too rigid. Milkman and her research collaborator, economist John Beshears of the Harvard School of Business, learned this lesson when they worked with Google on how to get the company’s employees to exercise more at the on-site gym.

In her new book How to Change, Milkman describes a study in which she and Beshears split 2,500 employees into two groups: one that received a reward if they went to the fitness center every day at the same time for a month and another that received a reward for working out every day, regardless of the time.

Milkman hypothesized that the group with stricter guidelines would build stronger habits. That’s not what happened. In reality, when people in that group weren’t able to go at their designated time, they ended up not going at all. Those in the other group just found another time. Forty weeks later, people in the group that had more flexibility were still exercising more often than the others.

What is more important than consistency is starting a habit with small steps and using cues to help promote the habit. Want to form a running habit? Then lay your running shoes next to your bed, and plan to run a block one day, maybe two the next and so on. Stack one day after another, and before long, your distance will improve. 

Labor Day also signals the beginning of something — a school year, a new quarter, a new season. The best way to begin something is with a newfound habit, one that can propel us to higher levels, both personally and professionally.

Celebrate today.

And think of a good habit to start tomorrow. 

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