Habits are automatic, learned behaviours that provide a quick answer to life’s puzzles.Without habits, you’d be paralysed by endless deliberation from the moment you woke each day – whether to shower then eat, or eat then shower, what to eat, what to wear, which route to take to work, or where to park.Habits can also be comforting. If you follow the same routines each day, then you mostly know what to expect. A downside to habits is that not only are some of them obviously unhealthy, but having too many can hamper your creativity and deprive you of serendipity.

Creature Of Habit

If you want to change, bear in mind that habits tend to be triggered by cues in the environment – that cereal box in the kitchen, the café on the way to work. That’s why holidays are such a great antidote. Put yourself in novel situations and you’re forced to think afresh rather than rely on old habits.

Changing Habits

A friend of mine kept a dozen or more boxes of the same breakfast cereal lined up in his kitchen. He enjoyed this particular cereal and did not want to waste any brainpower seeking an alternative. What he lost in variety and spontaneity, he made up for in efficiency. That, in a nutshell, is the virtue of habits – they’re automatic, learned behaviours that provide a quick answer to life’s puzzles.Without habits, you’d be paralysed by endless deliberation from the moment you woke each day – whether to shower then eat, or eat then shower, what to eat, what to wear, which route to take to work, or where to park.Habits can also be comforting. If you follow the same routines each day, then you mostly know what to expect. If this suits you, then in personality terms, you are probably a low scorer in ‘openness to experience’, a tendency that tends to grow with age. A downside to habits is that not only are some of them obviously unhealthy, but having too many can hamper your creativity and deprive you of serendipity.If you want to change, bear in mind that habits tend to be triggered by cues in the environment – that cereal box in the kitchen, the café on the way to work. That’s why holidays are such a great antidote. Put yourself in novel situations and you’re forced to think afresh rather than rely on old habits.Read more:

As it turns out, there may be an advantage to always doing things the same way.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

A friend of mine kept a dozen or more boxes of the same breakfast cereal lined up in his kitchen. He enjoyed this particular cereal and did not want to waste any brainpower seeking an alternative. What he lost in variety and spontaneity, he made up for in efficiency. That, in a nutshell, is the virtue of habits – they’re automatic, learned behaviours that provide a quick answer to life’s puzzles.

Without habits, you’d be paralysed by endless deliberation from the moment you woke each day – whether to shower then eat, or eat then shower, what to eat, what to wear, which route to take to work, or where to park.

Habits can also be comforting. If you follow the same routines each day, then you mostly know what to expect. If this suits you, then in personality terms, you are probably a low scorer in ‘openness to experience’, a tendency that tends to grow with age. A downside to habits is that not only are some of them obviously unhealthy, but having too many can hamper your creativity and deprive you of serendipity.

If you want to change, bear in mind that habits tend to be triggered by cues in the environment – that cereal box in the kitchen, the café on the way to work. That’s why holidays are such a great antidote. Put yourself in novel situations and you’re forced to think afresh rather than rely on old habits.

Why am I such a creature of habit? | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Creature Of Habit

Changing Habits

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