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The Law

Habit - IV

On internalisation, a new habit appears to work well. Then something happens and the old habit pounces back. That something is a "stress point". Some incident or incidents cause the stress and anxiety level to go up to a level that new routine goes for a toss and the old routing takes hold. We might have seen a number of smokers, giving up smoking for quite some time, resume smoking because they wanted to relieve their stress by smoking that one cigarette. That one cigarette becomes two, three and more and the old habit is back.

This is going to happen to each one of us trying to change a habit. It is much better to accept this possible pitfall and prepare a plan, in advance, to mitigate this.

There are two resources available to us for neutralising this threat. The first is to develop a support group - a network of friends, relatives - preferably those who are in the midst of a similar change effort. In times of difficulty, this group will lend you an ear, give you a pat on your back, exchange information, and in general be your sounding board on your stress issues. 

The second resource is your own belief. Belief in anything. Belief in God, Belief in your ability to create a change, Belief in your sense of responsibility to your family. A strong sense of belief is a very good antidote to the potential relapse.

Now that we understand the basics of a habit and how to change it, how do we identify the habits that we should change? We are a bundle of thousands and thousands of habits - good and bad. It is obvious that it is not possible to change all habits at one go. There has to be a process of selection.

I follow a method where I have shortlisted four or five high impact wasteful areas based on the the money that I spend, the time I spend, impact on my heath, impact on my contentment, impact on my self image. I call these areas as primary habit (pH) areas. in fact each of the pH comprises of multiple habits. Within the pH area, I analyse and identify as many component habits as possible.

For example one of my pH area is wasteful expenses. I have identified the component habits as compulsive shopping, extravagant tipping, opting for bulk purchases looking at the available discount even though I don't need so many, 
insisting on footing the bill every time I go out with my friends so on. 

From the list of component habits, i pick up an easy one which I will change first. I am looking for a easy win. 

I am going to pick up my another component habit to change, not necessarily from the same pH habit. I am also going to address this simultaneously. My criteria for selecting the component habit is same - easy win.

So, now I am working on two habits. I will not pick up any more till I changed these two and internalised these two. What I am saying is that I will not pick up any more habit consciously.

What is going to follow is really enjoyable.



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