Building Powerful and Qualitative Engineer through Practicing Impactful Habits

Preface of this blog:

There’s more to engineering than just technical know-how, so simply having a higher IQ is not going to cut it.

A good engineer will have commendable technical knowledge but a “great engineer” also has social and emotional intelligence. What makes engineers so sought after is their ability to not just understanding what is going on around them, but to also model new methods of innovative services surrounding the prevailing social scenario.

Not to forget, engineers design primarily for the common man, not for themselves or for machines.

Hence, the ability to communicate on an emotional level is also a key factor in the making of a great engineer.

Let’s take a look at some more such qualities to find out if you have what it takes to be a great engineer:

Natural Curiosity:

There’s no denying it.

If you want to be at the front in the race, you need to have a curious mind that is bent on examining and inventing to make things work better.

And Walt Disney says

Logical Thinking and Reasoning:

A great engineer needs to be able to understand complex systems, how they work, how problems arise and how to fix them.

Besides understanding technical complexities, engineers must also have the ability at interpreting it into layman’s language when communicating the same to clients and workers.

For example, there are no need of using ISO symbols for explaining a feature in hydraulic system to an operator or a customer or a sales engineer. Interconnecting a system and explaining through simple block diagrams does a lot.

In simple words “The art of communication is the language of leadership.”

Paying attention to the minutest of details throughout the course of any project is crucial in engineering because the cost of making even the slightest of errors is huge.

When you pay attention to the details, the big picture will take care of itself.

A competent engineer is always creative enough to think outside of the box and device ways and means to improve existing systems and innovate new ones.

It goes without saying; you can go further when you work together.

Any project that is completed successfully and efficiently has a great team, and not just one person, working behind it.

The proverb says “Talent wins games, but and intelligence win championships”

There’s no escaping problems in the midst of any project.

A great engineer must be able to address them as they arise, figure out where they stem from, and deal with them methodically and effectively.

Every problem has a solution. You just have to be creative enough to find it.

Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace and if you want to be a great engineer, you need to keep yourself well-informed of the new and recent developments in the industry.

Finally the below quote of Albert Einstein sounds a lot!

Having excellent technical knowledge is the DNA of a great engineer.

The need to understand and make use of computer programs & practical programs in the course of every project is more than necessary.

Now let us see on forming habits to develop us to be a powerful engineer.

Habits are the decisions we make and the actions we perform every day. Everything we think, say and do is a result of our habits, patterned into our minds through years and years of repetitious behavior.

Whatever our lives are today is the sum of our habits.

How healthy or unhealthy we are?, How happy or unhappy we are?, How successful or unsuccessful we are?

All these are the result of our habits

Procrastination, Difficulty in Staying Focused or even learning a new skill like reading or writing is linked to our habits.

How do we form a Habit?

Habits are a loop of 3 elements:

Cue: The cue for a habit can be anything that triggers the habit. Cue most generally fall under the following categories:

For example every day after lunch, you go for a smoke with your colleague. Your colleagues going for a smoke is cue here. The cue tells the brain to go into automatic processing mode and it takes effort to resist the cue, versus deriving satisfaction from following the cue.

Routine: It is the behavior we wish to change, for example smoking, binge watching or procrastinating.

Reward: This is the reason why our brain decides the previous steps are worth remembering for the future. The reward provides positive reinforcement for the desired behavior, making it more likely that you will produce behavior in the future again.

“So, once any behavior has all these elements, we create a habit loop”

1. Identify the habit you want to change. Identify the Cue, which leads to behavior like smoking. Do you smoke at a particular time or location or along with particular people? Try to avoid cue next time. Don’t go to the location where you smoke, or plan another activity at that location.
2. Implement the changes in you routine. Be Motivated to routinely follow the new behavior of not smoking at the location or doing something else like having green tea instead of smoking.
3. Recognize the reward. Let yourself know what you are gaining out of the change in your behavior. Like not smoking will help your energy levels or relieve you of smokers cough.

Why is it hard to Build a Habit?

According to a study by Duke University , 45% of everything we do daily is driven by our habits. They’re an integral part of the that shapes the underlying psychology direction of our lives.

Habits are patterns.

We are accustomed to these patterns . Breaking through those patterns requires us to put extra effort, which we generally try to avoid, which is our most common response as human beings. We always refrain from exploring unfamiliar territories and rather do things we are used to

“Bad habits make time your enemy. Good habits make time your ally.” — James Clear.

Bad habits give us instant gratification or pleasures whereas it takes time to see the results of a good habit. We avoid forming good habits which help us in life such as waking up early or exercising daily because it requires efforts. Our brain is lazy and hates putting in additional efforts, so it resorts to the easier activity which gives instant results or satisfaction. What smoking a sounds more pleasurable right cigarette or a 2 km run ? Smoking leads to Cancer. But despite knowing this, people do smoke. If someone tells them to change the habit and do not smoke , they will still continue because efforts will be required to stop it so better keep continuing.

Finally concluding the article with the famous quote of our Late Former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

To write this blog, I have considered the concepts of habit formation from the below self-help books:

1. James Clear’s Atomic Habits, briefed about Habits through Cue, Routine and Reward
2. Hal Elrod’s “The Miracle Morning”, briefed about forming habits in the early morning (6AM-8AM) by following concept called SAVERS (S-Silence/ A- Affirmations/ V-Visualization/ E-Exercise/ R-Reading/ S-Scribing
3. Robin Sharma’s “5AM Club”- Forming Habits in the early hours, specifically at 5 AM, following concept called Victory Hour, 20:20:20 rule (1st 20: The Moving Session, Exercise/ 2nd 20: Reflection, writing your thoughts and To-Do List and 3rd 20: The Growth- Reading Books or Newspapers etc.)

Given the link for buying these books from Amazon! Happy Reading!

Originally published at http://knowledgebex.wordpress.com on November 22, 2021.