Maximus

1. Identify the thoughts you want to have.
2. Identify the behaviour the thoughts provoke.
3. Embrace discomfort as a goal.
4. Do those behaviours.

01. Plan to carry out a new behaviour.
02. Make any necessary preparations.
03. Force yourself to practice the desired behavior.
04. The enjoyable result will serve as an incentive to
      repetition.
05. Enjoying the new power you have demonstrated will also be       an incentive.
06. Repetition will make it easier to get yourself to perform the       new behavior
07. Expect hardship.
08. Expect lapses and learn from them.
09. Quickly return to your new behaviour.
10. It becomes easy to perform.
11. It becomes your preferred behaviour.

More

1. Pick a behaviour you want to do regularly.
2. Set easy target dates for small increases in performance
3. Expect progress to feel like failure while you're learning
4. Expect progress to be unpleasant and slow.
5. Perfect performance could take a long time but it will occur.

Related Discussion here

Practice makes worthwhile actions easy.

Ordinary tradesmen, as anyone can see, achieve a great level of skill by constant practice of their trades.

And one musician or athlete is better than another, again, by virtue of his constant practice.

And, if these men transferred this same training to mental activity they could achieve a high level of skill in directing their minds.

Diogenes

Nothing in life can be brought to perfection without practice. Practice alone is able to overcome every obstacle.

Diogenes

There's often a lot of chaos in the world,
and the passion for knowledge is always at the bottom of it.

For all men strive to grasp what they don't yet know,
while none strive to grasp what they already know.

Chuang-tzu, The Wisdom of Laotse
via http://stoicnews.blogspot.com/

How To Grasp What You Know

It's not easy for a person to aquire
a stable point of view,
unless, day after day,
he says the same ideas,
and hears the same ideas
and applies the same ideas
to his everyday life.

Epictetus (Fragments 16)
http://www.paed.uni-muenchen.de/~kraiker/EPIKTET.HTM

The Love Of Knowledge

You can read book after book
And never master what you've learned
Unless you take the time to study it again.

Everyone has a hunger for the new
But we only learn when we make it old.

You are doing something you know is stupid and you want to change. But you find you have no will to act.

1. Recognize that you have to become a fanatic for
your new behaviours.

2. Write out a set of clearly defined simple actions to follow in specific situations.
Be detailed. Do not leave anything to chance.
If there's a phone number to call, write it down.
If there's something to say, write it out.
Set it up so you don't have to think about anything.

3. When the time comes for action,
get out the list of things to do
and mindlessly slide through every simple step
as it is laid out before you.

Every habit and ability is maintained and increased
by performing the relevant action:
the habit of walking by walking,
the habit of running by running.

If you want to be a good writer, write.
If you want to be a good typist, type.

Because, if you don't do something for a month,
and do something else instead,
The consequences will be very noticeable.

For instance, if you lie in bed for ten days,
then get up and try to take a long walk,
you'll see how weak your legs are.

So, generally speaking,
if you want to make anything a habit, do it.
And if you don't want to make it a habit, don't do it,
but accustom yourself to doing something else in its place.

This is true with respect to the emotions, as well.
When you allow yourself to become angry,
you are not only upset now,
but you have also increased the habit of anger,
having thrown fuel on the fire.

So, do not consider this a only single defeat,
but recognize that you have also increased your
incontinence, your lack of control.

For, in taking action,
it is impossible not to strengthen
habits and abilities that already exist
or produce those that did not exist before.

So, if you don't want to be angry,
don't feed the habit.
Don't do do anything that will increase it.
First, keep quiet.
And, then, count the days
on which you have not been angry.

You want to be able to say:
"I used to be in an uproar every day;
then every second day, then every third,
then every fourth".

And when you have stopped it for thirty days,
you can celebrate.
For, at first, the habit is weakened,
but then is completely destroyed.

And when you can say:
"I haven't been angry today and I was very careful
when something irritating happened."
and say the same the next day,
and the day after that
for two or three months,
then, you know for sure
that you are in good shape.

THE DISCOURSES II.18 by Epictetus 101 AD
Translated by George Long (with changes)
via http://stoicnews.blogspot.com

Aristotle said, "The happy life for a man is a life of consciously following a rule".

But rules are nothing without habits. Here's why.

Part of your mind is made to jump to conclusions very quickly so you can take fast action in the face of danger.

Sober second thought shows that many of these hasty conclusions are simple-minded.

Knowing this, we should plan to respond to similar situations in the future in ways that reflect our more detailed thinking.

But how can you get your reactive mind to follow intelligent rules?

By making a certain type of situation a cue for behaviour that you have deliberately made into a habit. Your brain is still reacting simplistically but is following an smarter course of action.

Why is this so important?

Because only a "mechanical" habit can give you the power to act against the strong emotions that are triggered by the simplistic ideas of your spontaneous mind.

And, you are not only fighting these ideas and emotions but also the habits you have developed by following these over a long period of time.

Aristotle said, "The happy life for a man is a life of consciously following a rule."

A rule is a pre-formulated guide
1 - in new situations
2 - and against simple-minded emotions.

1. Rules tell you what to do when you don't have time to think .

In a new situation, you don't have time to figure out the best course of action.

If you've thought about similar situations before, you can use the conclusions you've already drawn as a handy guide.

2. Rules protect you from simple-minded emotions.

Initial reactions are fast, uninformed and simplistic. That allows them to trigger powerful, misleading emotions.

If you've thought about similar situations before, your conclusions can be a handy alternative to the guidance offered by your emotions.

Aristotle said, "The happy life for a man is a life of consciously following a rule".

To be happy you need three things.
1. A good rule.
2. The reasoning ability to determine the right rule.
3. The ability to follow a rule.

The classic Greek rule is the rule of balance.

To have happiness and goodness in our souls we need to train ourselves not to do too much or too little of anything. This can be applied to all aspects of life.

The ability to follow a rule can be trained into a person's being. Through repetition of deliberate acts, we acquire the ability to act on decisions without being distracted.

And, since the ability to follow through on one's decisions is pleasing in itself, the more we train the ability, the more pleasing it becomes to practice it on a continual basis.

See Mark Zavodnyik