The force of habit. This is one of my favourite phrases. There is no mistaking it, you are dealing with something powerful here and you either get on board or you will be heading in the wrong direction.
Each day when I drive to work, there is a section of roadworks that I travel through. It has been this way for a while now, upwards of six months therefore I have got used to the changes in speed limits as I navigate this. Recently, they extended the area of roadworks which meant that the sign that would usually indicate the normal speed limit was reduced. Yet, time after time I found myself accelerating before catching myself. And from my observations, I wasn't the only one. Habit was overriding my senses, I could clearly see the adjusted limit yet something instinctive took hold before I had a chance to catch myself. And fortunately, I did catch myself each time.
So what happens when we don't? This is where we don't have any factors that tell us that our routine behaviour is no longer suitable or applicable to the conditions that lie before us. What happens if we miss the sign? Or we misread it? Our brain has been known to do such things, and the power of assumption reigns strong when habit is on a roll. We can carry this on further in the driving realm. The longer we have been driving, the more experience we have on the road yet the greater the potential for both the good habits and not so good ones to be established. Can we always say we are becoming a better driver? Or is our style ingrained deeply within us.
What about learning? We will form habits in what works for us, but is this the case of what would work best for us? This intuitive approach might actually be working against us, and when we hit the speed limit sign telling us to maintain our current speed we are instead taking off at a great rate of knots and missing the signs to tell us otherwise. There is good reason to tell us that when we started this journey that we were hesitant but attentive, inexperienced yet eager and looked forward to what lay ahead. Fast forward and this us a different prospect. Everything feels routine, habit has long since established itself and it seems to take a lot of effort to change. This will occur more often than you expect, you just might not be fully aware of where habits exist for you.
The idea of a force is often that we must overcome this, however we can use this to our advantage. We must be diligent in this approach of course. We must ensure that move carefully, conscientious, and in a considered manner. For instance, if I was working on the basis that gravity is a force (to the best of my knowledge this is how we are describing it) then we consider how we can overcome this. Wonderful machines and inventions that propel us through the air, defying this for in the most marvellous way. Or our favourite sports that rely on us challenging this downward force to hit, hurl, kick or fling projectiles in all manner of ways. Or perhaps the way that the tallest trees and buildings seem to defy this very concept stand testament to the mightiest structures. And in reality, we would all agree that we have a preference for being "stuck" to this planet rather than being flung into space.
There are moments where a force can seem tough to overcome, but if we understand the power of this, we realise that there is something quite incredible there for the taking. The force of habit is such thing. The first step is usually an action. Repeating that action can lead to inspiration. The inspiration causes a willingness to act again. And then we find the motivation. A finally we find the moment where it becomes automatic. When we steer this in the right direction, we are still going to need to keep an eye out for when those road signs change or there is a new limit that is applied. This force of habit is a wonderful thing. Be deliberate in the action you take, be consistent and let habit do what it does best.
Michael.
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