When your habits need changing, your self awareness needs improving.
In order to break out of your old ways, you first need to be able to recognize your patterns. You can’t drop a habit or add a new one if you don’t know how you work. You need to know the triggers, you need to notice the instincts, and you need to find the gap between stimulus and response.
Take a simple example like looking at your phone too much. You can tell yourself you want to limit your usage all you want, but if you never take the time to acknowledge your impulses to grab the phone, you won’t change. On a daily basis, you need to notice every single time you pick up your phone and make a mental note. The habit needs to be brought to the forefront of your mind, so you can be fully aware of it.
Once you are aware of every instance, you then have to recognize the space between the thought and the action. There’s always that moment between wanting to look at your phone and actually picking it up – that’s where your improvement sits. Once you’re aware of that space, you can make the change.
Now that you found that, you have to truly want to change the habit. If you’re ready, you simply have to act differently. So when you think of checking your phone, you reach for it, you pause, then you put the phone back down. You start by doing this a few times a day and eventually you do it more and more. That’s all there is to it.
Self awareness is all you need. You need to know how you act and be aware of every moment you consider the act and actually perform it. When you’re aware of what you want to change and notice every time you do what you don’t want to, then you can make the switch. Any time you go to do that thing, you pause, and you make the choice to act differently.
This sounds easier than it is and it takes time and effort. If you truly want to break a habit though, you gotta be willing to do the work. Pay more attention to what you do and how often. Don’t do things blindly or without intention. Be aware of your habits and use the gap between stimulus and response to be better than you were yesterday.
November 18, 2024
