Actions are Votes
I pitched a habit forming app to my old boss over lunch in 2014. Before I got to the second slide of my 12-page pitch deck he said, “Got anything else?”
I remember being a bit stunned and tried to keep going with my pitch, but he cut me off. Habit formation wasn’t interesting to him because it was “too simple.”
At the time, I thought it was about as complex a problem as there was to tackle, but he disagreed.
“People either understand that every action they take is a vote, or they don’t. If they do, they don’t need help. If they don’t, you can’t help them.”
My old boss has a PhD in noticing when people aren’t following him (it happens a lot), so he continued.
“For example, we just looked at a menu with a bunch of unhealthy, delicious-looking sandwiches and burgers, and you ordered a salad. I asked if you wanted to split a side of fries with me, and you said ‘no.’ You just voted, twice, for the type of person you want to be, whether you realize it or not. If you order dessert, that’ll be a vote in the other direction. It’ll muddle and cancel out some of your previous votes and confuse your subconscious. But, if you don’t get dessert, that’s another vote.
“The more votes you place in a specific direction, the more likely it is you’ll become that type of person — good or bad. And, the bigger the action, the more votes it accrues. So, moving to L.A. because you want to write screenplays gives you a whole bunch of votes on the side of the ledger for becoming a writer. And if you keep voting like a writer with your actions — you wake up early and write, join writers’ groups, don't go to bed without writing 1,000 words each day — you'll become a writer. And if on the days you can't write, you still place other votes that remind your subconscious you’re a writer, you'll keep momentum.
“Conversely, if you wake up late, check social media 10 times before lunch, and eat a chicken parm — you've cast, like, 20 votes to become that type of person.
“If you want to help people create habits,” my boss finished, “just help them track the votes. They don’t need an app, they need a ledger and a pen. Which is boring. So, what else you got?”
The hard part of my boss’ simplified vote process is that it requires you to know the type of person you’re voting to become. For you, this is probably some version of entrepreneur — maybe one who builds a business that creates enormous value for a small group of people who desperately need it and gladly overpay for it. Or, the type of person who builds a venture-backed business that’ll change the way people do…whatever. Both require a bunch of votes and a bunch of trust. Votes placed consistently, over a long period of time, will bend you towards the type of person and life you’d like.
But, my favorite part of the voting system is how healthy it is in the short-term. Because something like skipping dessert changes from something you’re missing out on to an opportunity to place a vote. It's a positive thing. Proof that you already are the type of person you’d like to become.
I’ve thought about that habit app for a decade now and have tried to implement the voting system for just as long. And...I kind of like the idea of a simple vote counter — like the ones those things people hold at festivals. Keep it in your pocket and click it for every action that’s a vote towards the type or person you want to be. Kinda fun? Maybe?
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