“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11
Humans are creatures of habit. According to a study on habits, it takes the average human being from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit. Breaking old and unhealthy habits takes the same time. From my experience, when I wanted to break an old habit, it was always more manageable if I replaced it with a new one.
Let us say that you are used to watching TV from 7 pm to 8 pm, and now you want to break that habit. It is going to be easier for you to just replace it with the habit of reading in that same period. Your brain will not be focused on the lack of the old habit, but instead, your brain will be excited about the new one.
An essential piece of information you’ll need when forming or breaking habits is that after the excitement from the beginning wears off, you will find yourself in a boring period. I call it the boring period because it is the period where you won’t see any considerable results, and your mind will constantly point out that you should quit because there are no benefits to forming a new habit or breaking the old one. Don’t negotiate with yourself. You may have setbacks, and that is normal, but don’t allow too many.
Your mind is not your enemy. Your mind wants comfort, and it tests you. Don’t negotiate with yourself because if you do, you will lose respect for yourself, and you can not afford that.
Always remember that you can not lie to yourself. Never! Don’t even try because self-respect and self-love result from keeping the promises you make to yourself.
Now that we have that covered, I want you to self asses and think about your daily routine and habits.
I am sure there is room for improvement for you, as it is for us all.
The most beautiful thing that follows after self-assessment and the decision to leave old habits and build new and healthy ones is the “upward spiral.”
The “upward spiral” refers to the Matthew principle from the Bible.
Matthew 25:29: “For to everyone who has [and values his blessings and gifts from God, and has used them wisely], more will be given, and [he will be richly supplied so that] he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have [because he has ignored or disregarded his blessings and gifts from God], even what he does have will be taken away.”
It is time to grow up. Leave old childish habits, like complaining, for example, behind, grow up, and adopt new and healthy habits like practicing daily gratitude.
Soon, you’ll be in an upward spiral because every new healthy habit affects your life and encourages you to adopt new healthy practices. The results will motivate you to keep going, and you won’t believe the person you will be in five years.
If you don’t do all that, five years from now, you will be the same person but older, and you don’t want that.
Trust me!
With love, yours truly, Cristian.