Growth Habits
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Research indicates that around 40% of our daily behaviors are automatic (Neal et al., 2006). Think about that; close to half of the time your behavior is being controlled by habits. Rather than choosing your behavior based on your conscious intention in a given moment, around 40% of the time your brain simply reacts to some cue in your environment, and your body follows through with an ingrained habitual behavior. At some point in your past you likely did make a conscious decision to do it this way; that decision was repeated, and now those past choices, behaviors, and experiences are shaping your life.
Habits are an extremely valuable way for the brain to save energy; this is important because while the brain makes up only about 2% of your mass, it uses 25% of your body’s oxygen resources. Habits are like memorized blueprints for responding to everyday problems and opportunities. Because so much of your daily behavior is based on habits, they are extremely powerful for shaping your life trajectory. Bad habits can destroy your life; good habits can put you on a fast track to growth and flourishing.
Contributors: Will MacDonald, Emily Hincks, Jared Warren