Do Our Habits Control Our Lives?

Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, tend to occur subconsciously, without directly thinking consciously about them. Habitual behavior sometimes goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting them, because it is often unnecessary to engage in self-analysis when undertaking in routine tasks.

That is the definition taken right from Wikipedia. I think it clearly answers the question of do we really live by habits.

I can argue and say that everything we do is from a habit we have incurred during our life. Everything from the way we wake up and get ready, to the way we work, to the way we treat our spouse, and much more. It is all formed by habits we have trained ourselves to live by.

Now, the great thing about this is a habit is reversible. Here’s a perfect example…

I was a smoker for 12 years. Every morning when I got up, the first thing I did was grab a cigarette, I had a smoking habit. I would smoke during certain activities and much more. So, whenever it was time for me to quit smoking the hard part was not the nicotine, the hard part was breaking the habits.

Every time I jumped in my car I wanted a cigarette. Every morning when I woke up I l wanted a cigarette. Every time I ate I  wanted a cigarette. Breaking those habits was the most difficult thing to do when it came to quitting smoking. But, the great thing about that is all I did was replace the negative habit of smoking with a more positive habit.

Actually, to be truthful with you, I replaced the negative habit of smoking with a bad habit of drinking soda.

I was never a real soda drinker. I had sodas on occasion. But, whenever I quit smoking I started drinking Dr. Pepper by the gallons. Whenever I wanted a cigarette I would grab a Dr. Pepper. I was trying to replace the habit of smoking with a habit of drinking. But, I should’ve been using water. If I would’ve done this with water that would have been great. But, I did it with soda so I paid the consequences.

I ended up gaining about 60 pounds over the next year and a half from my now soda habit

But, luckily for me I can change that habit as well. I have now replaced the soda with water. I do have a soda on occasion but now whenever I want a drink I grab a water instead of a soda.

Within this short story I gave you two examples of how I was able to take two habits and turn them into different habits. The reason I told that story is I wanted to illustrate that habits can be broken and they can be changed to different habits. So, we are in control of our habits.

All too often I hear people blame their life on the habits that they have. They blame their life on the addictions that they have. They blame their life on things they can control. Unfortunately, these people do not know they can control them. It is easier than they think, especially with the small little things.

Today I want to talk to you about how you can change a habit for the better. I’m going to give you the process I went through to quit smoking, and quit stuffing my face with soda.

Habits are generally formed within a 21 day period. If you do something constantly for 21 days it is said that you have formed a habit and it becomes more natural to do it. So, our goal is to do something for 21 days straight.

Once we hit that 21 day mark things become easier and easier to repeat.

If we can stay focused and keep going for 21 days doing the same habit over and over again, day in and day out, we will no doubt be on the way to forming a very positive habit.

So, the first step is to recognize the negative habit that you want to change. You cannot change a habit without recognizing that you have that habit. Here’s an example…

Before I quit smoking my goal was to get in the habit of running. But, unfortunately getting into the habit of running was almost impossible because I was a smoker. I could run because I could not breathe. I could not breathe because I was a smoker. So, my end goal was to be able to breathe. But, I thought that that would be accomplished by running. Unfortunately, that did not help.

The real thing I was trying to do was quit smoking. It was not until I was able to focus on quitting smoking and break that habit, was able to finally start breathing again.

Now, once you recognize the habit you need to change it is time to set a pattern. You want to make a conscious effort to do different tasks when it comes to the old task. For me, when it came to smoking I would drink soda. So instead of grabbing a cigarette, I would grab a soda.

Then, once I needed to quit drinking soda, instead of grabbing a soda I would grab a water.

Now, you need to set a goal to do it consistently for 21 straight days. I’m not asking you to do this the rest of your life. All I’m asking you to do is give it a chance for 21 days.

The great thing about this is once you get the 21 days you will notice that it is so easy to keep doing the same thing that you will continue to do it. Before long it will become subconsciously the way you do things.

If you use to wake up and grab a cigarette, now you are going to wake up and grab a water. The funny thing about that is grabbing a water is so much more healthier than grabbing a cigarette. So, as you can see, you can change your habits. It just takes dedication by you.

It takes you recognizing the old habit and turning it into a new one. You can do it, I have faith in you. Just set a goal and stick with it for 21 days. That’s all I ask.

You can do it!

Talk soon…