Habits Got You? 4 Insights for Change

Every morning I am first into our kitchen.

I take two mugs out of the cupboard…

prepare them with coffee and hot chocolate…

unplug my phone from the charger…

click on my YouVersion Bible app…

read the North Pointe portion of the Bible for the day…

and journal my insights.

That pattern has been the first 15 minutes of most everyday for as long as I can remember.

My actions are not choices I make each day but habits that are embedded in the fabric of my “routine.”

Your daily actions are the result of settled habits.

You can change your life by changing your habits.

4 Insights To The Power Of Habits

1. Our most basic actions are not the product of well-considered decision making, but of habits we often do not realize exist. Are you consistently late or early? Do you think positive or negative thoughts? Do you pay off your credit cards before the end of every month? Are you a spender or a saver? Do you tithe? Do you floss everyday?

Think about it – did you pause this morning to decide whether to tie your left shoe or your right shoe first? Which one was it?

Did you have any trouble figuring out if you should brush your teeth before or after showering (you did remember to shower, right)?

Do you buckle up first or turn on your car’s radio?

2. Habits start as choices we deliberately make at some point and then stop thinking about but continue doing, often every day. New habits are formed the same way. Once you begin a new pattern, the behavior becomes as automatic as any other habit.

3. On the most basic level, a habit is a simple neurological loop. Understanding this loop is the key to success. Habits can be changed.

Charles Duhigg begins his book, ‘The Power of Habits” with Lisa’s story. She was thirty-four years old. When she was sixteen she started smoking and drinking. She struggled with obesity most of her life. At one point collection agencies were after her for $10,000 in debts. Her longest job lasted less than a year.

“By age thirty-eight she had stopped smoking, lost sixty pounds, ran a marathon, started a Master’s degree and bought a home. You could say it was an eventful four years. How did she do it? A miracle? Deliverance? Will power? Incentives?”

Lisa changed one habit.

She addressed the triggers that led to smoking and changed her response to them. She did that each time she felt like smoking.

That successful change became the basis for changing all of her other habits.

4. Tweaking even one habit can have staggering effects in other areas of your life. Like Lisa, following a practice that brings success in one area will give you a pattern for changing any habit in your life.

So what do you want to change?
What do you want to start doing?
What do you want to stop doing?

You can change today!

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