Habits Can Make Our Lives Easier

Many of our mental and physical activities each day are carried on almost entirely by habit. Habits are remarkable mental tools; they save time; they eliminate a monumental amount of boring detail from our lives; they allow us to turn complex tasks into simple ones and make it possible to perform many everyday jobs with little or no conscious attention, freeing our minds to think about matters we consider more interesting or more important.

Benefits of Getting Rid of Undesirable Habits:

Making unconscious choices conscious again may feel uncomfortable at first because it disrupts old, established patterns of behavior. The advantages of eliminating unwanted habits far outweigh any temporary discomfort we might feel as a result of it. Besides this, as we become more conscious of our actions, some remarkable changes will occur.

We drastically reduce the number of repetitions of unwanted behavior: Because we must consciously decide whether or not to make them, actions we perform with our full attention take longer than those we do merely as a matter of habit. As a result, we have less time available for repeating them.

We lessen the habit’s harmful effects: If we require ourselves to make a series of decisions before we swallow each forkful of food, we have the opportunity to monitor the physical sensations that tell us we have had enough to eat. This being true, we are much less likely to continue eating once we had enough.

The habit grows weaker and less demanding: When we disrupt an established habit pattern, the subconscious level of our mind recognizes we are reconsidering some earlier choices, and it is less insistent that we repeat the old behavior.

We become able to re-evaluate the habit objectively: Once we are able to stand away from our habits, so to speak, we see them from a different perspective. Our feelings about smoking, for instance, may change when we discover how unpleasant cigarettes actually smell and taste.

Our self-esteem increases: We cannot help but think more highly of ourselves as we increase our control over our lives.

We need not be stuck with the habits we have today because we are stronger than our behavior patterns. N matter how deeply entrenched a habit may be, if we sincerely desire to get rid of it, we will. Since habits begin in our minds, they must end there, too. There is no reason why we cannot replace any destructive habits with behavior that will work to our advantage.

The mind, it has been said, is a good servant but a poor master. It is up to us to decide which ours will be.