Use This Ancient Military Strategy to Build Better Habits
The Art of War is a timeless book about military strategy written by the legendary Chinese general Sun Tzu. His book has made strong influences on both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking. Even more so, following the book’s mass production and sales, its lessons have made its way into many competitive fields including politics, business, law, and professional sports.
One of the core principals in the Art of War is being very strategic in how and when to approach battle. We don’t take on every fight, even if there is a valuable prize at the end. Sun Tzu advocates being extremely selective, only picking fights where the odds are tilted in our favour.
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Taking on hard challenges by fighting them head-on is a lost cause. If you try to go directly through a hard rock, you’re going to need incredible force to breakthrough.
Instead, Sun Tzu advocates a more fluid approach, to find weak points and attack from those angles. Attacking such points accomplishes the exact same goal while being much more likely to succeed. “Military tactics are like water. For water, in its natural course, runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So, in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.”
We can apply these tactics for building up better habits too.
Battling for Better Habits
When trying to build new habits, people often attack the problem head-on. They think that they can beat their bad habits and build good ones through sheer force and will power. While this may work occasionally, as sometimes our will power is particularly strong, it’s not a consistent strategy to follow.
Let’s look at a few examples:
- You’re trying to follow a strict diet, but your house is filled with sweets and sugar
- You’re trying to get more sleep, but your work desk and laptop are in your room
- You’re trying to quit social media, but your phone is filled with social media apps
- You’re trying to watch less Netflix and YouTube, but you’ve got them bookmarked on your laptop
Under those kinds of conditions, everyone is prone to failure of their habits. There are too many distractions, too many challenges to overcome. The habits are hard to form because we’ve made it hard for ourselves by battling under such challenging conditions. The failures here are not the result of a lack of will power or lack of hard work, but rather a poorly formed strategy.
Good military leaders don’t fight such disadvantaged battles. They look for weak points, positions where their enemy is weakened or moral is low before launching their assault. Why start a war that’s already tilted in the enemy’s favour? Why try to build habits in an environment that makes them difficult?
We must do what Sun Tzu would do: put ourselves in the most advantageous position possible to build our habits. Let’s work on making things easier for ourselves, changing the conditions so that the odds of the battle are tilted in our favour.
Mastering Habits Through Smart Warfare
There are 3 principals from the Art of War that we can adapt directly to habit building.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Explained: Understand the times when you know you’re more likely to fall into bad habits and when you’re more in the mood for achieving good ones. If you’re trying to get off of coffee and you always have it in the morning, then you know that’s the time when you’re most vulnerable.
“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Explained: Start with easier habits. If you’re trying to cut out sugar for a diet, it doesn’t make sense to go from 10 servings of sugar a day straight down to 0. Instead, reduce it gradually. Eventually you will get down to your target number, but the slow and smooth approach is a lot easier to succeed with.
“What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Explained: Make things easier for yourself. Trying to stop watching YouTube every day is pretty hard if you’ve got it bookmarked on your browser. You’ll have a much easier time if the website is blocked entirely, or if you turn off your internet while doing work.
Pick Your Battles and Make Them Easy
Using military strategy, picking your battles and making them easy will substantially increase your chances of succeeding in building better habits. It’s not your lack of willpower, trust me. You just need to change your system.
Take the easy approach:
- If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t do it in a house filled with sweets. Don’t buy the soda and the chips at all. It’ll be a lot easier to lose weight when you don’t have access to the things that are making you gain it. Get a friend to help you out. A second pair of eyes to watch your eating habits is always helpful.
- If you’re trying to cut down on the YouTube and Netflix, block them on your computer. You can install a browser extension like WasteNoTime to block websites or set a time limit on how long you can spend on them each day.
- If you’re trying to read more, don’t do it in a room where there’s a TV, or food, or noise, or other distractions. Find a quiet place where you can relax in peace and quiet. Make it your designated reading spot. Having that separate environment will establish in your mind that “this spot is for reading and that’s it.”
- If you’re surrounded by negative people who scoff at your goals and put you down, get out of that environment. Being around those kinds of people is just making your goals harder to accomplish. If you spend time with like-minded people, positive people who are driven in their lives, then that’ll motivate you too. It makes everything easier
- If you’re trying to stick to a writing habit when your kids are home from school and your house is in chaos, then work on it at a different time. Try getting up a couple of hours early when everyone is asleep. Switch to a time of less resistance.
The above list is not exhaustive but it should give you the right idea of how to simplify and ease your battle for better habits.
Build your habits under a system where it is easy to do so. Put yourself in a position where the odds are tipped in your favour. These small adjustments to your approach will make a huge difference in the long run.
Follow the strategies of one of the greatest military generals of all time. Be like water: move around resistance and past obstacles. Fight that battles which you are destined to win.
“Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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