Self-Control

Amazing.  In the book Atomic Habits, I have been reading a chapter on self-control.  What I have read has blown me away.  Even though it is contrary to much popular thought, it makes sense.
He says the secret to self-control is to make the cues for good habits obvious, and for bad ones invisible.  His prime example is a study done on the US soldiers of Vietnam.  The discovery shocked America as did the findings of a report on the problem.
It was found that 15% of US soldiers were heroin addicts.  The thing that amazed was that nearly 9 out of 10 soldiers that used heroin in Vietnam got rid of their addition upon return.  In other words, much bad behaviour is triggered by obvious cues.  Take away the cues and a problem is easier to deal with.
He is a realist and states how there are times self-control and a steely will is needed, but those times can be reduced big time without the cues that bring the problem on.  In his words, “it is easier to avoid temptation than resist it.”
That makes so much sense to me as I have been creating an environment that minimizes the temptation to do what I know is bad for me, and to create a favourable environment for doing the right thing.
To me this reinforces what I have been saying quite a bit of late “what I focus on grows bigger.”  To him a key to creating good habits is to make necessary cues obvious while to aid getting rid of bad habits make cues as close to invisible as possible.
That to me seems like a good place to start.  It seems to me so often what I am on the look out for, I find.  So it makes sense to build my environment in such a way that good stuff is front and centre, and bad stuff is more and more difficult to find.
Again I reiterate that books I read I feel contain truth but are not the totality of truth.  There is only one book I have found to be that way, and it is my “go to” book.   Even things I thought were contrary to love, or were seemingly contradictory, were cleared up when I honestly investigated the context of the matter.  Much of what is stated in Atomic Habits is another way of saying what I have read in my “go to” book.