habits

“…and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all”

That quote taken from the short story “The Masque of Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe describes the terrible ,omniscient, power that a plague known as the “red death” had over the land in Poe’s story.

But there is another force present in everyone that holds dominion over us.

That force is the power of habitual behaviour or “habits”.

Have you ever stopped to think about how you interact with the world on a daily basis?

Try to think about the number of genuinely new and unique experiences that you have everyday and then think about the number of experiences that are mainly experiences that are repeated from the day before.

If you are anything like me you will come to the conclusion that we are living out a similar pattern of behaviours each day with very little deviation from this set pattern.

We all tend to rise at the same time each day, and then throughout the rest of the day – we will travel to the same places, meet the same people, interact with them in the same ways and perform the same set of actions that we did the day before.

Now you may argue that much of this repeated behaviour is grounded in the fact that we are attached to certain possessions, people and resources which have to be revisited in order for us to maintain a healthy continuity in our lives.

We can’t just change our cars, jobs, houses, or spouses on a daily basis without some difficulty!

But, within the range of activities that we are obliged to repeat everyday, there is a lot of scope to vary our approach when carrying out these activities.

The key thing is to take notice of is WHY you are repeating these behaviours, by asking yourself questions such as:

1. Do I need to carry out this action?

2. What would be the consequences of not doing it?

3. Can I carry out this action at a different time?

4. Can I carry out this action in a different way?

Any actions that you repeat on a daily basis are likely to be driven by habit and although habitual behaviour in itself is not a bad thing, the problem lies in the fact that you are carrying them out on “auto pilot” without giving any thought to your behaviour.

The actions that you repeat or the behaviours that you exhibit when faced with a particular set of circumstances may have been the most appropriate at one time but may not be now.

Habits are capable of making people repeat destructive behaviours and sustain these over the course of many years (smoking and alcohol consumption are two obvious examples).

People will repeat behaviours that they know are bad for them and justify this position because the activity at the time was pleasurable e.g. smoking, drinking , gambling, etc . But people will also repeat behaviours that do not even provide any pleasure and may even result in pain.

The German writer and polymath Goethe observed that -

“Habit is a man’s sole comfort.  We dislike doing without even unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed.”

So why would a person repeat an action that not only was harmful to them but may also be painful as well?

The reason is that when an action is repeated, neural pathways begin to become established in the brain and with more repetitions these pathways become stronger and less prone to be broken.

The reason why these pathways are established is probably so that the brain has a “short cut” route to carrying out the action again if fit is required to do so and with more repetitions the more established the pathway becomes and the more likely that this pathway will be followed.

Habits are completely amoral and do not care if the consequences of the behaviour that they make you repeat is good or bad.

Given the tremendous power that a habit has to direct us in our life and that it is completely neutral in terms of policing the consequences of it’s actions make habits seem like quite a bad idea!

But the fact that they are so powerful and neutral can make them your greatest allies!

Having a mechanism inside you that can make you execute behaviours that you have already established will help you lead a better life can only be construed as a good thing.

But the problem remains as to how to control this powerful mechanism.

The electrical and chemical agencies in the brain that control the formation and eradication of neural pathways and the associated behaviours that follow when these pathways are activated is complex and not fully understood. It is certainly outside the scope of this short article.

Although a detailed understanding of anything is always a good idea, enough is understood about habits that a “black box” or systems approach can be taken in order to gain some control over them.

My purpose in this article is merely to explore the ubiquity and power of habits in controlling almost every aspect of our behaviour.

In a future article I will detail some methods by which you can take control of your habits – creating new positive habits and destroying old negative ones in order to achieve the your desired behaviours.