Habitual mastery

In the article below, we'll start on our path to mastering our habits. First we need to really recognize what a habit actually is. From there we need to develop the ability to become aware of these habits and our ability to seek improvements in them.

Conditioning – Conditioning a habit is the primary mechanism for installing it. In this article I'll detail some of the methods I've used to condition new habits to make them an effortless part of my life.

Leverage – What do you do when your habit requires more willpower than you have? In these cases, understanding the power of leverage can allow you to take a small amount of willpower to push through an incredibly difficult habit.

Replacement – Habits can't be removed. They must be upgraded or replaced. In this article I'll detail how we can work on replacing habits to prevent some of the unwanted side-effects caused by massive habit changes.

Experimentation – Now you will know how to change your habits more effectively and easily, you can really start pushing the boundaries for what is possible. In this article I'll give steps for what I feel is the fundamental key from taking your habits from average to excellence.

Our lives run on habits. We have habits for what we eat, how we dress and where we drive. Habits dictate whether we jump out of bed each morning or hit that snooze button… Just… One… More… Time. Habits decide what actions we take on a consistent basis. Since it is our consistent actions that determine the direction of our life, our habits ultimately decide much of the outcome of our lives.

January 1st seems to create a lot of enthusiasm for people desiring to make changes. But, after a few short weeks, these people revert to their old habits. So disappointing is this ritual that many people have completely given up on the idea of being able to change their habits. These people think that, perhaps, habit changes are only for those with a lot of willpower or drive. The few people that are able to make changes on their habits usually reserve that power for extremely critical changes. Is it even possible to gain control over our habits?

Yes! Habits can be changed and we can even reach a point where even dramatic habitual changes are fairly easy. Changing habits is a skill. Like all other skills it needs both practice and technique. Once you are competent with the skill you can use these techniques to conduct your own personal experiments. Instead of sitting back and theorizing what a different set of habits would be like to live with, you can actually try it out!

What is a Habit?

Our brains are created from a very complex array of neurons. These neurons receive input from our sensory organs and deliver them to the brain. Each of these neurons is connected to thousands of others. By carefully adjusting the importance of each neuron in relation to another, our brain forms pathways of these chemical impulses, processing and interpreting the massive amounts of information we receive from the world.

In order to free up our cognitive abilities our brains streamline common procedures. Some pathways have been used so much that our brain has set up these connections to run through them automatically. If you've ever walked into a room and forgotten why you were there, chances are you understand this process. Actions like walking and driving were incredibly complex and difficult for you to learn initially, but now you don't even need to think about it.

Source: www.scotthyoung.com