Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

The subconscious mind—the habitual mind—is over one million times more powerful than the conscious mind. This means that we spend a substantial amount of our lifetime on “autopilot,” playing out the mental programs that govern our behavior. We have set the cruise control on major sections of our daily lives.

For example, while driving a car and carrying on a conversation with someone, the conscious mind is attending to what is being said in the moment while the subconscious mind is turning on the turn signal, hitting the brakes, attending to oncoming traffic, monitoring our blood sugar, regulating our breathing, planning our next move and on and on. The subconscious mind is so vast and so powerful that we do not even know what it is thinking or capable of. It truly runs our lives—whether we know it or not! This is not a bad thing. It frees our conscious mind for other concerns.

Habits can be friends or foes, and once established, they are extremely resistant to change. Whether they are a positive force in our lives or obstacles to the goals we want to achieve, habits become ingrained through repeated actions. Good habits make our lives easier, helping us to do the more mundane things of life without thinking about them, like automatically depositing your paycheck.

But, as we are very aware, habits can also be destructive—to our health, to our finances, to our relationships. It’s why we struggle with losing weight, paying off our credit cards, or quitting smoking, to name a few “bad habits.”

It requires both fierce desire and dedicated determination to change a habit.

Here is a simple challenge to illustrate the power of our habits. Think about the location of your kitchen trash receptacle. If you are like me, it’s been in one specific place for a pretty long time. You probably go to it many times during a day and don’t even think about doing so. Throwing stuff in the trash is a daily habit.

Now, be bold! Decide to move the location of that trash receptacle. Are you resisting the very idea of moving it? That is typical when it comes to deciding to change any habit. Be brave… move that trash receptacle… even if it is less convenient… for just seven days. Note the process you go through each day, in fact each time you go to toss something in the container. How often did you forget and have to recall the new location? Were you frustrated? Were you wasting time? If you don’t live alone, how did others deal with YOUR CHANGE? No matter what the habit we choose to tackle may be, the process and impact is similar. However, with time, it will become easier, and a new habit will be developed.

Here’s the point: Habits—good, bad, or neutral—are difficult to break. They Die Hard!

The real key to success is replacing destructive habits with successful habits.

To reach our goals—to change self-defeating attitudes and behaviors—we must understand that we have the power to choose and the power to change. We have the power to let go of old thinking and unproductive ways and develop a new outlook and a healthy, happy way of enjoying our lives.

I look forward to hearing how things go from those of you who dare to take the challenge!

I Care, Barb