Superhabits

 

Issue No. 639 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 28, 2025)  spotlights a phenomenal book—Superhabits—and a colorful diagram based on the virtues of St. Thomas Aquinas. And if your boss is now asking for a weekly progress report—and where did that idea come from? (LOL!), use my two-page template, “Weekly Update to My Supervisor.” Plus, click here for recent eNews issues posted at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my two-part review of Dan Heath’s new book, Reset. DILIGENCE! In 1909, R. G. LeTourneau (1888-1969) took an automobile correspondence course and granted himself a BM Degree, "Bachelor of Motorcycles,” after he learned how to take apart and put back together his newly acquired motorcycle. He did this feat in ONE day! The rest is earth-moving history!     Exercising Your Virtues Muscles! The author of Superhabits warns us: “A mid-air crisis is not the time to be learning many new things.” Hopefully, you’re not in crisis mode today. So it’s the perfect time to be learning from the founding dean of Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C. (Dr. Abela was also a brand manager at Procter & Gamble, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.) You’ll love this book! Superhabits:  The Universal System for a Successful Life by Andrew V. Abela (Oct. 15, 2024)   But yikes! Our granddaughter, Annika, a high school senior, gave me this special book for my birthday almost four months ago—and I’m finally reviewing it! Why the delay? I read it slowly. I made over 50 notes. It’s that good. Meaty. Thought-provoking. And systematic. (I love systems, but I can’t decide if I’ll slot this in the Systems Bucket, the Culture Bucket, the Results Bucket, the Crisis Bucket, or maybe the Hoopla! Bucket!) In this joyful book, Andrew Abela generously shares the results of his diligent deep dive into the Treatise on Virtues of St. Thomas Aquinas. He calls his project, “Anatomy of Virtue: The System of ‘Superhabits’ for Making Life Easier, Happier, and Healthier.” And get this! The hardcover copy of Superhabits comes shrink-wrapped with a stunning 16” x 21” full-color poster, plus access to the Busch Virtue Diagnostic. (Bonus: Visit Dr. Abela’s Substack blog and you can download a PDF of the “Anatomy of Virtue” diagram.) ANATOMY OF VIRTUE. v. 13.0 - Based on the Treatise on the Virtues of St. Thomas Aquinas. For further information, go to https://superhabit.substack.com.  Email questions and comments to Dr. Abela at abela@cua.edu. © 2024. A. V. Abela, Ph.D. Used by permission. This business school dean is not the first to systematize virtues and/or write practical commentaries on the power of habits. (See Charles Duhigg’s bestseller.) But, if you do any coaching, teaching, preaching, or mentoring—I’m thinking your content (and your system) may be sadly incomplete without this book. And here’s another bonus: it’s a delight to read—and you’ll be sharing the dozens of stories and concepts for years to come. Promise! Abela notes, “For thousands of years, philosophers have written about what I’m calling superhabits.” But how many “superhabits” are there? Apparently no one can agree!    • Epictetus (4)    • William Bennett (10)    • Benjamin Franklin (13)    • Romano Guardini (17)    • Positive psychology (it depends: 6 or 24)    • John Garvey (29) St. Thomas Aquinas to the rescue! Superhabits shines a light on the system used by this 13th century philosopher monk “by offering a system of virtues, not just a list.” As you’ll discover, the book spotlights four cardinal superhabits: Practical Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Self-Discipline. I counted 39 superhabits that are integral to the cardinal habits. (Trust me—you will enjoy this deep dive.) LOL! “Aquinas’ approach was much like the children’s game ‘Twenty Questions.’” (Read more about this simple explanation in Chapter 9, “The Superhabits System.”) Aquinas “presented the superhabits—the virtues—systematically in a way that demonstrates completeness, and that illustrates how the superhabits all work together.” (And don’t skip the math problem—calculators allowed—on page 102.) To explain further, Abela references “one of the most crushing criticisms you can receive” as a junior consultant at McKinsey: “Your analysis isn’t MECE” means “that you haven’t adequately separated the business problem you’re working on into its component parts.” He adds, “There had to be no overlaps among the parts, and no gaps between them: they had to be Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive, or ‘MECE.’” (Go ahead—crush someone at your next weekly staff meeting!) And this is key: you already have the superhabit “muscles”—they just need to be exercised. Abela promises, “Whatever challenge you’re facing in life, there’s a superhabit for that.” That’s a bold claim, right? But after reading and reflecting on this powerful system, I’m a convert. The spiritual life (faith, hope, and love from 1 Corinthians 13) is not neglected in this system. Pastors and priests may also want to align the “fruits of the Spirit” from Galatians 5 into this system.  There’s no need to pick my favorite chapter (they’re all very helpful)—but if you insist—I’ve already told two granddaughters about Chapter 12, “Practical Wisdom.” Abela skillfully leverages the heart-pounding events of Jan. 15, 2009, when Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York City. All 155 passengers and crew survived! “Practical Wisdom,” writes the author, “is the superhabit of making and implementing wise decisions, whether well-deliberated, strategic decisions over extended periods of time, or near-instantaneous ones like the ones Flight 1549 faced.” He adds, “Practical Wisdom recognizes that a decision is not properly made until it is implemented.” Practical Wisdom has eight component superhabits. Per Aquinas, there are “four for gathering the relevant information, one for reasoning, and three for implementing.” So using a minute-by-minute (actually second-by-second) view from the cockpit with Captain “Sully,” the author illustrates how each of these superhabits—learned well in advance of a crisis—enabled “Sully” and his crew to land the plane. Absolutely fascinating! The eight superhabits that back up Practical Wisdom include: Memory, Judgment, Teachability, Creativity, Reasoning, Alertness, Foresight, and Preparedness. Abela adds, “Aquinas was writing 750 years ago; but it is remarkable how closely his framework matches, and yet goes deeper than, many contemporary decision-making processes.” (I agree. Stunning!) For an old guy like me (“…why did I just come into the kitchen?”), the four pages with practical insights on memory include four suggestions from Aquinas for “how to remember things reliably.” So Abela suggests you make a “funny or unusual image in your mind of what you want to remember…” (So now when I need a pair of scissors, I’m picturing those scissors riding a Harley!)   Listen to Dr. Andrew Abela’s talk, “The Virtues as Super Habits,” presented at the 2024 Summer Conference of the Napa Institute (33 minutes.) And/or view this interview with Dr. Abela on the “This Is the Day” podcast (6 minutes, 24 seconds.) Practical Wisdom includes the superhabit of Teachability. Abela appreciates Jordan Peterson’s rule nine, “Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.” You get this, right? Imagine if everyone on your team (or in your family) devoted themselves to lifelong learning and growing in these superhabits—before the next crisis. (Yikes!) Why? “One important way Sully demonstrated the superhabit of Teachability was his determination to learn from others’ mistakes.” (See my recent blog on 16 mistake-making books.)   And talk about contrarian! While many people claim, “I’m just not creative,” Abela guarantees that the creativity muscle can be developed. At the end of those frightening four minutes and 17 seconds since takeoff, Captain Sully made an announcement to his passengers, “This is the Captain. Brace for impact.” The plane landed on the Hudson River (a very creative choice) at five minutes and 49 seconds after takeoff. Imagine! LOL! “After reaching shore, there was a humorous moment when Sullenberger called the U.S. Airways Operations Control Center to check in with them. The duty operations manager picked up the phone and in a rushed voice said, ‘I can’t talk right now. There’s a plane down in the Hudson!’” Is your team well-prepared for your next crisis? As Peter Drucker counseled leaders, “Fortunately or unfortunately, the one predictable thing in any organization is the crisis. That  always comes.” How much exercise do you and your team members get with the Alertness muscle and the Preparedness muscle? TEASERS #1:    • Humility: read what C.S. Lewis said about designing the best cathedral in the world.    • Diligence: learn why R. G. LeTourneau gave himself a one-man graduation ceremony for earning his B.M. degree for Bachelor of Motorcycles!    • Courage (“…like every superhabit, is the mean between two extremes”): the stunning WW2 story of the American oil tanker, SS Ohio, miraculously arriving in Grand Harbor at Malta to the cheers of 100,000 citizens! (See also my recent review of The Courage Gap.) TEASERS #2:    • Justice: learn about the slave trader, John Newton, and his re-conversion to Christianity in 1748. Abela ties that into Newton’s hymn, “Amazing Grace,” and learn what Mahalia Jackson said to Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.    • Perseverance: “…Donald Rumsfeld used to say, ‘Once you quit one thing, then you can quit something else, and pretty soon you’ll get good at being a quitter.’”    • Read. The. Conclusion! Don’t skip the magnificent summary. Do. Not. Skip. The. Conclusion! Abela promises, “Superhabits are contagious! Patrick Lencioni said that Superhabits is going to be a classic. I agree. Arthur C. Brooks called it a “must-read.” I agree. And—oh, my—this book deserves at least two reviews. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life, by Andrew V. Abela.    YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) What “system” have you used to enrich your life—and those around you? Steve Macchia (see “Second Reads” below) is also the author of Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way. (Read my review.) Macchia appreciates the first century Italian monk, St. Benedict (480-547) and his classic, Little Rule for Beginners. 2) Staying on the superhighway of saints (or perhaps the Camino de Santiago), let me also recommend the wonderful book, 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God, by Father Darrin Merlino, CMF. You’ll learn about the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). Gutsy! (Read my review.) Could you unplug for 30 days? (How ‘bout one day?)        SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #9 of 99: Becoming a Healthy Team For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #9 of 99 in our new series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books and niche chapters still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Becoming a Healthy Team:  5 Traits of Vital Leadership  by Stephen A. Macchia (LTI Publications, Feb. 7, 2014, 188 pages) Raise your hand if your team is humming along with no hiccups. (I thought so!) You can never have enough help when inspiring your team members—day after day, after day. (Just ask Elon Musk if it’s easy to keep team members focused on priority tasks!) This book will help.    • Read my original review (Issue No. 15, Dec. 4, 2006).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket My SECOND READ Insights/Ideas: I missed this brilliant companion resource. When scanning this book again, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Steve Macchia and Justin Schell wrote a companion tool, Becoming a Healthy Team: Workbook and Exercises. This 100-page resource guides your team through collaborative exercises which reinforce the book’s themes: Trust, Empowerment, Assimilation, Management, and Service (T.E.A.M.S.). Utilizing creative team building experiences, the exercises include: Bible study, reflection, confession, lectio divina, shared practices, and fun activities. Fun? Yes! For the “Healthy Teams Empower” exercise, group members need new names! “…make up one of the most outlandish names for yourself. Create nametags using these names and call one another by these names for the rest of your time together.” (I’d start a new study group—just to have fun with this exercise!) For more resources, including a 30-question team assessment, visit Leadership Transformations. (Note: Macchia's book, The Discerning Life, was my 2022 book-of-the-year.)   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN        New AI Podcast: The Best Leaders!  Welcome back to our new mini-feature, “BucketCast.” Click here to listen to the AI-generated podcasters (14 minutes, 6 seconds) who comment on my book review of Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest, by William Vanderbloemen. (Read my review.) For more podcasts, click here. IMPORTANT NOTICE! Some of the above links may not work. (Sorry!) Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being movedto this website. New book reviews will also be archived here at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. And/or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. 16 Books on Mistake-Making! Really! At least once a year, you should read a book on mistake-making! So, here’s my latest blog with 16 books—one for every mistake flavor. Patrick Lencioni suggests you keep Mistakes Leaders Make on your desk all year—and read it once a year! Click here for mini-reviews of 16 books. For more book reviews, visit the Pails in Comparison Blog.