What Is A Habit?

This is the Habit Influencer. This is the show where we talk to you about all the latest information, insights, techniques on how to have positive habits in your life. Habits that will give you more fulfillment, better health, better career, better personal relationship. What is a habit? The word habit means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The narrowest definition usually revolves around a specific thing you do unconsciously or almost unconsciously on a regular basis. I prefer a broader view of what a habit is. A lot of things we do are not consciously done, but are still sorts of habits. You might unconsciously fasten a seat belt when you get into the car, and that's a good habit. But chances are you don't literally unconsciously lift weights or exercise every day. You have to give it some thought. But if you do these things long enough and you have emotional buy in to do things like exercising every day, you may get to the point where lifting weights or going running is a habit. It's not a big struggle. You're not spending a lot of time motivating yourself to do it or thinking about it. You don't say, am I going to exercise today or not? Am I going to eat healthy food or eat junk food or not? You're not debating that. It's already a part of who you are. These are the habits I'm interested in exploring right here with you. We all have good habits, we all have bad habits. Let's not kid ourselves. But there are some habits that are harmful to us and therefore deserve. The label of bad habits are the operating system of our brain and of our life. They have to be upgraded from time to time, just like software operating systems. The problem a lot of us have is not that we're running an old operating system like Windows 95 in our brain. No, no, it's much worse than that. It's like we're running a much, much older system. The IBM system 360 operating system from 1964. Now habits are like these secret invisible things that people don't like to talk about. Again, it's kind of like the computer. Let's use the computer analogy. It's as if people constantly upgraded to bigger screens, fancier keyboards, more sophisticated mouses, maybe Mac style packaging, while still using the same old software. If you keep buying newer or fancier computers, but you keep putting your old software in them, you're going to be frustrated. Most people would say, of course you'll be frustrated. That person is really stupid for trying to put old software in new and fancy or expensive Hardware. It just doesn't make sense. And yet, people constantly buy new homes, new cars, to get new spouses, new careers, but they have the same old buggy habits. Therefore, they get the same results as before. They are just as unhappy as before. Their operating systems have not improved. Of course, sometimes they have the same great habits. And these great habits propel them to even more success. This channel is about helping you figure out the fastest and most effective way for you to do software upgrades to your brain so that you can have the best possible habits to help create the most successful, happiest and fulfilled life possible. One of my main operating assumptions is that there's typically no one habit that's creating a great life for you. Now, you could have a specific bad habit that's destroying your life. You have the habit of drinking five bottles of wine per day. Well, yeah, that habit alone could pretty much kill you. But the problem with so much of the habit industry, as I like to call it, is that it takes a piecemeal approach to everything. Things like little tips and tricks on how to get up earlier one hour each day. But if you fixate on something like getting up one hour earlier, it doesn't solve a lot of problems an individual might have in life. In fact, it could cause even more problems than if you use this trick in isolation. Because if you get up an hour earlier and nothing else has changed, you'll be even less rested, your brain isn't working properly, you're less creative, you're more irritable. How is that helping matters to simply get up one hour earlier each day? It's not. If you really want to get up one hour earlier each day and actually be more productive in the day and be happier and be healthier, after all, that's presumably what your real goal would be. There are a whole lot of other habits that have to be changed. There's a whole series of habits that would have to be changed. If you want to get up an hour earlier, then you need to go to bed at least an hour earlier, perhaps two hours earlier. If you want to get up fully rested. And if you want to be able to sleep then and get a good night's sleep, you need to not. Here's the hard part. You need to not look at any electronic screens one hour before bedtime. And if you want to do that, you have to change a more difficult set of habits. It means not having your cell phone in your bedroom. It means not checking your email right before you go to bed. And it may even require changing the habit of watching seinfeld reruns or YouTube cat videos at 11pm each night. Instead, you might have to read a paper book. So I believe the whole approach of just micro targeting a specific habit here and there to improve is it really worthwhile or effective? The starting point should be much, much larger. The starting point for you should be what is my vision of living a happy, fulfilled, successful life? Then you need to work backwards. Figure out all of the habits you need that will get you there. Habits can't be viewed as good or bad in a vacuum. They only work within the context of what you're really trying to do with your life. For example, if you have a really boring, simple, easy job at a factory where all you do is push a button all day long like Homer Simpson, okay, then it doesn't matter if you fall asleep half the time. In this case, waking up an hour earlier each day might be a good thing. Gives you more free time to watch tv. That could be a legitimate goal for you. It won't matter that you'd be less able to think creatively or get along with people, because that's not a part of your job. And presumably that's not a part of your aspirations. But come on, you're not Homer Simpson. You have higher goals and aspirations than that. If your job and your aspiration is to be creative, to write, to be innovative, to create software to solve problems for people, to help clients, customers, patients, then being less tired is going to be a good thing. If you can't think clearly and you're in a bad mood because you didn't get enough sleep because you woke up earlier, that's not helping at all. So look at your life's goals. Look at what you're really trying to accomplish. Then look at every possible habit you have throughout your day and figure out what works in the big picture to support your life goals. That's about all for now. But if you like this and you want to see more, please follow me on any of the links you see below. I'm TJ Walker. See you soon.