“Isn’t it weird?”
“What’s that?”
“We always walk to the same spot and put our shoes on the same rock…”
For the past 7 days, my father-in-law and I have been running through the quaint mountain-side villages of Crete finishing at a secluded cove to swim in the sea with the village locals.
Every morning we would walk across the stoney cliff face and place our shoes on exactly the same rock before going for a quick dip.
Even though the cove isn’t particularly big, it’s still large enough to choose any perfectly good spot on the beach to place our shoes.
And yet, without fail we head to the same spot and place our shoes on exactly the same rock for one simple reason.
We are creatures of habit.
When I say ‘we’, I mean you and I and every other person on this planet.
On day 1, where we took off our shoes on the beach was total chance.
On day 2, it was already a subconscious choice.
On day 3, 4, 5 and 6, it was a habit.
Most of the tiny daily decisions we make are subconscious impulses.
I bet you sit in the same seat when watching the tv.
I bet you sit in the same spot at the dinner table.
It’s now 7 days into our holiday and each one of the family has sat on the same pool-side sun lounger as they did on day 1.
Creatures of habit.
Our brain tries to autopilot as many decisions as possible. It has to.
If we had to think hard about where to put our shoes every morning plus the thousands of daily decisions we need to make we would be mentally exhausted.
We want most decisions to be made by subconscious impulses.
However, we don’t want to be making important decisions about health, wealth and relationships on autopilot.
Recognising that we are creatures of habit is the start. Understanding that we can harness that fact for our greater good is how we take control of our lives.
For instance, people that go to the gym at the same time on the same days of the week end up logging more workouts.
Creatures of habit.
Take a moment to reflect on some decisions you’ve made recently that fall in to a category of either health, wealth or relationships (the real important decisions in life).
Are you making intentional and conscious decisions or are you letting your decision-making run on autopilot?
Building good habits needs your full conscious attention and effort because our mind is constantly seeking comfort and certainty.
As a wise man once said, “We are what we repeatedly do”.
If you missed last week’s edition, read The illusion of shortcuts.