Habits

I believe habits to be one of the biggest influences of our actions.  We're lazy, we fear change, and we're risk averse.  How much more likely are you to enter a restaurant if you've already been there before?  How much more likely are you to exercise if you've already done so in the past week?  How much more likely are you to switch your dentist, even if you've had a bad experience last time?

Try a thought experiment.  Say you're Jane Goodall observing monkeys LOL.  And you observe what they like to eat, how much they play, sleeping patterns, social patterns, mating patterns, what they do day-to-day etc.  You spend the time researching and thinking about these behaviors and write a dozen books on monkeys.  Try to take a step back and think of yourself as the monkey, and ask yourself what a book on yourself would look like.  What are your eating and sleeping patterns?  What are your social skills like?  How is your physical health?  Take a few minutes to actually think about what a book on your behaviors would look like.

Then make a conscious decision of what habits you want to keep and what habits you want to change.

*I said I was going to write more about principles, but I'm going to hold off on it for now.