Life Dynamics

Disciplined Life Patterns

Why this tactic matters
Faced with the pressures of life it is important to optimise your physical and mental well being. There are few short cuts to sustainable life success. Much of the time success is the culmination of disciplined effort and stamina. Disciplined Life Patterns establishes those habits and routines for efficient personal organisation to manage the competing demands of life, and a healthy life style to keep in good health.

A somewhat disorganised and erratic life style, and a risk of neglecting physical and mental well-being?		Planned and organised in managing the demands of life, utilising good habits to maintain physical and mental well-being?

The only 3 solutions to improved effectiveness Don’t leave others hanging around One day to get organised Small hassles build quickly: know when to “sweat the small stuff” Create a system or be enslaved by someone else’s 4 Ds: Do it, Delegate it, Delay it or Dump it Log your time 80% of success in life is turning up Conduct a fundamental review of your leisure time and activities Write a “stop do” list Use the “Swiss cheese” method to punch holes in a big project Get ahead of the game “As a man (or woman) thinketh so is he (she)” Discipline takes discipline Read the signs when all is not well in life Don’t win a Darwin Award Don’t try too hard Avoid temptation Take regular physical exercise Don’t let bad habits take hold within the work place Only An Hour J.F.D.I. Bring in someone else to run your life		Think strategically Manage your diary to keep it free for the unexpected Apply “bum glue” Make your habits work productively for you Live and let live Don’t become hide-bound Laugh You can’t plan fun Are you driving other people nuts? Loosen up and see what happens Don’t become a hypochondriac

New York’s Broken Windows
How did New York go from the crime capital of the USA to the safest large city in the country? From 1993 to 1995, murder dropped by 39%, burglary by 25%. 36% fewer cars were stolen and 31% fewer people robbed. The reason: New York implemented the “broken windows” theory.” “If the first window in a building is not repaired, then people who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Soon the building will have no windows.” Repair the broken windows within a short time and the vandals are much less likely to break more windows and do further damage. Problems do not escalate and the respectable residents don’t flee a neighbourhood.

The concept was first tested with New York Transit Police. Because subway police hadn’t focused on “low level crimes”, subway disorder and crime exploded in the 1980s. Chronic fare evaders, aggressive panhandlers, substance abusers all contributed to an atmosphere of chaos. Until transit police began to enforce “quality of life” laws. And by targeting fare beaters it turned out that the people who broke the law by jumping turnstiles were often the people who were breaking bigger laws. The result: a dramatic drop in crime. Mayor Guiliani adopted the strategy for NYP under the rubrics of “zero tolerance” and “quality of life”, ordering his police to enforce even the lowest level offences: jaywalking, vagrancy, public intoxication, even the “squeezee merchants”. His police commissioner William Bratton announced, “we will fight for every street. We will fight for every borough.” They fought and won. Stop the major offences by seizing the minor offenders.

Broken windows is based on the simple idea that you have to pay attention to the small things, otherwise they get out of control and become much worse. Disciplined Life Patterns cultivates the good life habits to help you establish control, protecting your physical and mental well being for the big stuff of life.

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