432 I Inhabit My Habits March 2018 Thursday Week 2

Thoughtful Thursdays-#432 January The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Inhabit My Habits

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle

The origin of the word habit comes from the Latin words of habere— to have, to hold, to possess…and also the word habitare— to live, dwell, or remain. And when I saw this, a lightbulb went off in my head as I thought about the word "inhabit" which means to live or dwell in. And I think that's why we struggle with habits is we don't inhabit them. We don't live IN habit. And lasting change will happen by us making the choice NOT just to act once…but to LIVE in the action over and over again.

And when you think about living within an act, not just doing something, you actually create a shift in your mindset. You see that who you want to be is who you have to become in every moment. And that's why we struggle with change, because we want it to be a one-time thing, we want it to be one and done. We want the ease of change without the process of change, and thus we disillusion ourselves saying it wasn't meant to be, I can't change, I'm always meant to be this way, it's just my luck…or any other excuse we can use to get us out of doing the consistent work of acting and believing a certain way. And that's how a habit will stick, we surpass doing things only in the physical and we reprogram the mind to know this is our new home.

I got thinking about the idea for this podcast by having a conversation with a friend after teaching a spin class and then driving home. I was at a stop light in a left turn lane. It was one of those lights where you can't turn left as you have a red left arrow, so you have to wait for the light to turn green to make a turn. And while I sat there waiting I looked at all the traffic passing by my car. And for the first time I really took notice of the double yellow line on the road. The line that lets you know where your lane ends and the opposite traffic's lane begins. And it really freaked me out how two small lines that maybe span the distance of a foot or two were what was keeping me and others from disaster.

Those two lines made such an impression on me that I kept thinking about it for the next few hours. I realized that the smallest things are what make the biggest impact in our lives. And that's what habits are really, they're small actions done consistently, or as we just learned their "lived within." And like traffic, they are the patterns that you inhabit in thoughts and actions.

I realized that successful habits were really about one thing…keeping the small promises we make to ourselves; the promises of doing and thinking in ways that would keep ourselves from the destruction of being a person without those guidelines.

And maybe keeping habits feels so hard because we've been asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking what we want to be doing, maybe we should look at it from another angle and ask ourselves why we are failing in the areas we want to be successful.

We have the tendency to look at what we need to add into our lives; and as we include more and more things that we think we should add in, we get overwhelmed trying to do too much and soon it just feels like a discombobulated mess that will never work. And the reason it will never work is that we are trying to do everything we can think of under the sun that might work, instead of choosing one small action, and thought, to focus on and master first before adding more into the mix.

What if you were to think of the habits in your mind like those painted roadways that keep two-way traffic running smoothly? What if you stopped trying to make change such a huge endeavor that you're worn out before you even get started? There's something called decision fatigue where we only have a certain amount of choices during our day that we'll have the most energy for. And once we go over that certain number of choices, we get fatigued, and it's harder to have good judgment as we are not in our best thinking conditions.

What if you were to make the decisions that count before you surpassed your decision fatigue?

What if you were to stop trying to add more and more actions or thoughts to the habits you want to encompass and you simplified the process?

So again, what are you struggling with, and why are you struggling with the change you want? When we can see the problem of the actions and thoughts that are keeping us from change…then we can simplify that change. Because when you see what's wrong, usually the easiest way to change what's wrong is to do the exact opposite of what's keeping you continually stumbling.

So if something is creating anxiety in your life look at what helps to create calm in your life. If you're seeing what's keeping you in the area of procrastination, then you look at what helps you to get moving and to continually stay moving.

The problems aren't really a problem; they're guideposts letting you know that there's a snag in your efforts. They are the signs saying here is where you are struggling, so you just need to go the other way or make a turn here, or maybe even see the problem differently…and that's when change begins to form. The change may be a physical action, or it may be a mental action on how you speak and think about a problem.

While habits are simple, they are the lifeline towards our change. And recalling the Latin root of habit will help to change how we see habits. We will see a habit is not an action, but it's an understanding of inhabiting that small change. It is living within those thoughts and actions in each moment that promotes the change. It's not TRYING something; it's living within that habit as you will no longer be able to tell the difference between where you end and the habit begins. It's understanding the habit is no longer a simple action, but it is you BEING that habit.

Think of your life like one of those camping tents. You are trying to survive the best way you can in this tent. The new life-changing habit is like a sleeping bag. Sure, maybe you can survive without the sleeping bag, but the bugs may bite the heck out of you. Sure, you might be able to survive the temperature shifts, but maybe you won't be able to keep your body regulated to the right temperature to function at optimal levels. And maybe you can get comfortable sleeping on the dirt ground, but the sleeping bag will help make you more comfortable within that tent. The habit will be work, but it will keep you comfortable in a structure that keeps you directed towards your life goals.

I think about all the religious texts that talk about letting go of the old self, killing the old you, to make room for the new self. That's what a habit is, it's destroying the old you, the old ways, and it's making room for the new way. It's that small double line painted in your mind keeping you in line from having a head-on collision with your old ways.

Today's Personal Commitment:

Think about an outcome in your life that you want to have right now? What would it take to become that person? What habits would you have to live in to make that a reality for you? Write all your answers down on a sheet of paper under the headline the New Me Habits.

Now think about the habits that are keeping you from being that person you want to be. What would it take to pivot from those habits to implement the new habits you just wrote down? Write those down under the headline Pivoting Habits.

Look at both lists and write down the three next best things you need to do to begin working on pivoting from the old habits into creating the new person you will be inhabiting.

George Washington Carver said, "Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."

I Inhabit My Habits

Thanks for listening. I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: chris@strongwithin.com phone:865-219-3247

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
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