I realized this morning that there is an interesting thing about habit forming that I have not considered until this moment. Good or Bad habits have both the same thing going on, we accomplish them almost subconsciously. Without significant thought – we enter into habitual activity. When we are doing bad things – this is horribly destructive. When we drive to work, we get in a habit of stopping at the gas station, buying a bunch of sugar and digest it on the way to work all the while sitting down with no movement. Overtime this has major consequences. When we do good things, we just do them and slowly overtime we improve or at least maintain a higher level of performance in whatever the habit is helping with.
This made me realize how much of what I do is just subconscious participation in life? How many things do I go through life on auto pilot with? Is this why I have a hard time remembering giant sections of my life? I was just on auto pilot and therefore cannot remember much? I taught computer science for 20+ years – I remember moments where I really had a good experience – but there are many many many days of teaching where I do not remember a thing. Is that because I really was not actively participating?
I wonder how much interaction with our loved ones is like this? How many of our prayers are like this? How many of our conversations are like this. The real challenge and the real benefit in the 365 commitment is that every morning you are making a conscious decision to focus on something and to actually participate. This can be exhausting, btw, active and conscious participation is much more difficult then auto pilot mode – but I have a feeling that when our active minds are engaged that is when we are making true progress.
Guy Reams (279)
365 Commitment
