Chapter 1 Continued: Why So Many Bad Habits?
Yes, that's right -- bad habits either create pleasure, or help avoid pain. And that is why they are so darned difficult to control and defeat without a dedicated, diligent focus.
Here's an example: I love fried foods. Chicken tenders, chicken wings, french fries, potato chips, onion rings, mozzarella cheese sticks, donuts, egg rolls, spring rolls. Bring them all! They are warm, and crunchy, and oh so tasty. I love to feel the "squish" and taste the flavor of the warm oil or butter in a freshly fried onion ring or french fry or egg roll. They are SOOO good! They provide amazing short term pleasure -- downright yummy!
But they have a definite downside, don't they? If you eat these foods much at all (once or more per day), and you are more than 19 years old, you are probably paying for the negative health aspects, aren't you? Extra weight, higher cholesterol, increased cardiovascular risk factors -- all due to those donuts that you love. Over a period of weeks, eating these foods frequently will cause you to add unwanted weight and fatty deposits to your body and your organs. Over months and years, they will likely shorten your lifespan and cause your quality of life to drop dramatically.
Pretty obvious stuff, eh? But yet, in the moment, that one little donut won't hurt will it? And you know what, it probably won't. A single donut won't hurt anyone. It might even be good for the soul. It is the aggregation of several years worth of donuts and other fried foods that causes the problems. And it is this aggregation -- this "bad" habit -- that so many of us end up struggling with.
Because a bad habit can simply appear and become entrenched with almost no effort on your part. You get into the habit of picking up a donut, or a sandwich with fries, every day as part of your morning or lunch routine. You aren't thinking about long-term impacts. You're just thinking, "Hey, it's quick, and it's yummy." And because it is quick, and it is yummy, you get a strong reinforcement from your brain that "Hey, this makes good sense. Let's keep doing this." You get ready to head for work, and the donut shop is on the way -- why not stop? Or, the little burger joint is right around the corner -- those fries are great -- and I can be back to work in 30 minutes. Let's go!
And next thing you know, that extra 5, 10, 15 pounds is squarely planted on your front, or your sides (or, God forbid, your backside!), and you don't know how it got there.
Bad habits are easy to create. Simply think about the now, forget about the future, and go for immediate and simple pleasure. And then, keep doing it. You'll probably find a bad habit there. And once created, they are a real pain to stop. Once you get the taste for fried food, it is hard to break the habit. You always want the french fries instead of the salad. You might even like the salad too, but your habit gets a force of its own, and at a subconscious level "talks" you into the fries.
And once your life has many bad habits, they can literally damage your life and your quality of life. An aggregation of bad habits is almost certainly going to cause your life to be significantly below its potential, and cause your happiness, fulfillment, and personal success to suffer. You will find yourself "in a rut". Sure, you might still be "functional". You might be "treading water". You might even be "slowly moving forward" (assuming you have at least a few very good habits counterbalancing the damage caused by the bad habits), but you can pretty much guarantee you are living a life something less than it could be due to these uncontrolled habits. So what do you do?
Here's an example: I love fried foods. Chicken tenders, chicken wings, french fries, potato chips, onion rings, mozzarella cheese sticks, donuts, egg rolls, spring rolls. Bring them all! They are warm, and crunchy, and oh so tasty. I love to feel the "squish" and taste the flavor of the warm oil or butter in a freshly fried onion ring or french fry or egg roll. They are SOOO good! They provide amazing short term pleasure -- downright yummy!
But they have a definite downside, don't they? If you eat these foods much at all (once or more per day), and you are more than 19 years old, you are probably paying for the negative health aspects, aren't you? Extra weight, higher cholesterol, increased cardiovascular risk factors -- all due to those donuts that you love. Over a period of weeks, eating these foods frequently will cause you to add unwanted weight and fatty deposits to your body and your organs. Over months and years, they will likely shorten your lifespan and cause your quality of life to drop dramatically.
Pretty obvious stuff, eh? But yet, in the moment, that one little donut won't hurt will it? And you know what, it probably won't. A single donut won't hurt anyone. It might even be good for the soul. It is the aggregation of several years worth of donuts and other fried foods that causes the problems. And it is this aggregation -- this "bad" habit -- that so many of us end up struggling with.
Because a bad habit can simply appear and become entrenched with almost no effort on your part. You get into the habit of picking up a donut, or a sandwich with fries, every day as part of your morning or lunch routine. You aren't thinking about long-term impacts. You're just thinking, "Hey, it's quick, and it's yummy." And because it is quick, and it is yummy, you get a strong reinforcement from your brain that "Hey, this makes good sense. Let's keep doing this." You get ready to head for work, and the donut shop is on the way -- why not stop? Or, the little burger joint is right around the corner -- those fries are great -- and I can be back to work in 30 minutes. Let's go!
And next thing you know, that extra 5, 10, 15 pounds is squarely planted on your front, or your sides (or, God forbid, your backside!), and you don't know how it got there.
Bad habits are easy to create. Simply think about the now, forget about the future, and go for immediate and simple pleasure. And then, keep doing it. You'll probably find a bad habit there. And once created, they are a real pain to stop. Once you get the taste for fried food, it is hard to break the habit. You always want the french fries instead of the salad. You might even like the salad too, but your habit gets a force of its own, and at a subconscious level "talks" you into the fries.
And once your life has many bad habits, they can literally damage your life and your quality of life. An aggregation of bad habits is almost certainly going to cause your life to be significantly below its potential, and cause your happiness, fulfillment, and personal success to suffer. You will find yourself "in a rut". Sure, you might still be "functional". You might be "treading water". You might even be "slowly moving forward" (assuming you have at least a few very good habits counterbalancing the damage caused by the bad habits), but you can pretty much guarantee you are living a life something less than it could be due to these uncontrolled habits. So what do you do?
posted by Randy_Dean at 10:53 PM
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