Routine
Human beings, as far as I know, are habitual creatures. We thrive on habit. The famous philosopher F.M. Alexander once said, “The reason that we develop habit, is so we don’t have to think. Instead, we can put our intelligence elsewhere. But, whether we actually put our intelligence somewhere else is another story.”
This quote has two good points to it. The first being that we as human beings develop habit as a means to save time; we do things in the same way again and again until they become second nature. This way we really learn how to do things naturally and without much effort. This allows information or knowledge to become ingrained in us and become long term memory. That means that this knowledge has become hardwired into our brain and we can use this pattern to save time in the future. It is like having a formula already set to solve a math problem. But, the second part is not so nice. The fact is that sometimes we don’t even know that we are forming a habit. Actually, many of our habits we do not choose consciously so there is no way to check them. They go un-checked and they could create problems for us in the future. This is like having a formula for solving a math equation that always gives us the wrong answer.
So how do we make sure that we choose good habits? How do we sustain these good habits? How do we spot the bad habits and do away with them? Video How our habits can hinder our happiness.
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