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I would disagree for the sake of every lazy hearted person out there. Once a habit is integrated you can just forget it and the automated part of the mind will

I would disagree for the sake of every lazy hearted person out there. Once a habit is integrated you can just forget it and the automated part of the mind will do it for you. I no longer think about well trained habits, they happen without my determination.

al_borland 3y ago
It depends on the task. I put my seatbelt on when I get in the car without even thinking about it, and also wash my hands after using the bathroom in the same way. Tasks with a higher barrier to entry, or that we don’t fully value, often don’t go on fully autopilot. I’ve shown up for work every weekday for 20 years. It isn’t a habit, it’s an obligation. With all the running David Goggins has done, one could say it should be a habit, he never misses a day of training, but he still talks about how some days he just looks at his shoes for an hour and doesn’t want to do it. It’s not automatic, he has to keep deciding to show up. During the pandemic a lot of people stopped taking a shower and getting dressed first thing in the morning, something they had probably done their whole life. It wasn’t automatic, it was something they did every morning for social reasons. When the social reason was lost, so did the action. I think it’s the lazy hearted person who often falls into the trap of, “the research says if I do this for 21 days I’ll do it forever,” and then they wonder why they stop. I’ve fallen in to this trap more times than I can count. I do something for months, it feels like it’s a habit, I take that for granted and try to move my focus elsewhere, and that habit drops off. There is no finish line, just less resistance. I think the most trained habits are the small subtasks that our brain batches into one thing, like calling a function, but the function still needs to be triggered or called.

al_borland 3y ago

It depends on the task. I put my seatbelt on when I get in the car without even thinking about it, and also wash my hands after using the bathroom in the same way. Tasks with a higher barrier to entry, or that we don’t fully value, often don’t go on fully autopilot. I’ve shown up for work every weekday for 20 years. It isn’t a habit, it’s an obligation. With all the running David Goggins has done, one could say it should be a habit, he never misses a day of training, but he still talks about how some days he just looks at his shoes for an hour and doesn’t want to do it. It’s not automatic, he has to keep deciding to show up. During the pandemic a lot of people stopped taking a shower and getting dressed first thing in the morning, something they had probably done their whole life. It wasn’t automatic, it was something they did every morning for social reasons. When the social reason was lost, so did the action. I think it’s the lazy hearted person who often falls into the trap of, “the research says if I do this for 21 days I’ll do it forever,” and then they wonder why they stop. I’ve fallen in to this trap more times than I can count. I do something for months, it feels like it’s a habit, I take that for granted and try to move my focus elsewhere, and that habit drops off. There is no finish line, just less resistance. I think the most trained habits are the small subtasks that our brain batches into one thing, like calling a function, but the function still needs to be triggered or called.