So, you’ve decided to make some changes this year. Maybe even decided to have some fun with it. Pumped yourself up with a list of what you want more of. Framed that in statements as if they are already true like I have an amazing network of awesome people who support me. I earn oodles of money every month. I look beautiful and feel awesome.
Except nothing will change. We will never experience these things as reality without a heavy dose of honesty.
We can want all the marvelous things we want and even believe we deserve them. But if we’re not brave enough to admit how we get in our own way, we’ll probably never have them. At least not in a sustainable way.
It’s our habits that hamper our best intentions. Automatic, unconscious habits of thinking or doing triggered by something in our environment. We buy into these patterns as ‘who we are or the way it is’. We don’t recognize they are often the result of a forgotten, often haphazard choice from long ago.
If we don’t shine a light on these counterproductive habits, we’re sunk. We have to come to terms with the sneaky BENEFITS we receive. Yes, I said benefits! Most of us don’t believe we actually get a payoff from these wicked little patterns.
This kind of honesty, although not for the faint of heart at times, means gaining tons of freedom. Freedom to consciously choose what we want and it feels incredible! Like screaming wildly from a mountaintop or eating a buffet of deserts without fear of getting fat or running naked through the streets. (pick one that resonates).
Once we fess up to the benefit, we can have fun outsmarting the habit by redesigning it with a better pattern that supports that same benefit.
Are you ready to get honest about your habits?
Jo-Aynne
Today’s action item-Recognize a habit you have that gets in the way of something you want. Figure out when this habit gets triggered and the benefit, usually hidden at first, that you receive from doing it.
