Better than before: Good habits lead to happier lives
- By Eugene Clark
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 16, 2015
8. Plan for change. Habits are more likely to hold if we take safeguards to ensure we stay on course. For example, if we travel a lot and want to make sure we maintain our habit of regular exercise, we need to plan for how we can still get in our exercise even when away from our gym. For example, when I am away from my weights I have at home I use a stretch band that I can easily fit into my luggage. I also have learned a number of exercises I can do anywhere and that use my own body as a weight.
9. Loopholes and excuses. Scientist George Washington Carver observed that: 'Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." One of the most insightful and powerful chapters of Rubin's book deals with all the excuses, the loopholes, that we give ourselves for not staying firm in our resolve in creating a good new habit. Just a few of the ones mentioned by Rubin, include:
·False choice loophole - "I can't do this, because I'm so busy doing that" So often we couch alternatives in either A or B type thinking. Yet the reality is that if we really want to do something there is a way to achieve A AND B and more.
·Moral licensing loophole - "I've been so good, it's okay for me to do this". This one is very seductive and one I use far too often. We make an excuse by saying that because we have been good about one aspect of our lives then it is ok to do the wrong thing, make the wrong choice, this time around. I've worked so hard diet, I can go completely off of it this weekend.
·Tomorrow loophole - "It's okay to skip today, because I'm going to do this tomorrow". This is another classic. Never do today what you can put off tomorrow. I'll start the diet tomorrow. I'll exercise tomorrow. Unfortunately the tomorrows continue to repeat themselves, eventually turning into 'never'.
·Lack of control loophole - "I can't help myself". We tell ourselves that we don't have control, that we are weak and we believe our own rhetoric.
·"This doesn't count" loophole - "I'm on vacation" "I'm sick" "It's the weekend". I'm tired. Again, we make an excuse.
·Fake self-actualization loophole - "You only live once! Embrace the moment!" Like a child who can't delay satisfaction, we fall in the trap of thinking I have to do this wrong thing now for I only live once and life is so short.
10. Good company. If you want to develop good habits surround yourself with people who also have good habits and who are committed to developing and maintaining them. They also play an important role in helping , indeed, inspiring , others to develop and strengthen good habits
Conclusion
Writer James Baldwin wrote that: "People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply by the lives they lead." Good habits are important for all. They enable us to make unconscious and automatic those important actions that for the foundation for further growth and development. It seems to me that good organizations, good government and good leaders, too, must give careful thought to developing good habits in all that they do so that society will be improved and individual and collective dreams may be achieved.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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