We frequently mention techniques to help you develop good habits and break bad ones, but if you’re having difficulty really sorting out the things you could or should change about your life, the blog Zen Habits has a solid suggestion: think of your daily activities as things you “practice”. Now consider which of those activities you dislike, and why you keep doing them.
Photo by woodleywonderworks.
Some of the examples that blogger Leo Babauta offers as bad habits that we often unknowingly practise are things like getting up in the morning with barely enough time to get to the office. We should instead practise getting up earlier, embracing a relaxing morning and doing something productive to start our day. He argues that our lives are really a series of things we practise, and if we consciously practise better habits, we’ll not only identify and break our bad habits, but we’ll organically grow good ones and live a more proactive life. The aim is to be aware of the habits you’re developing and embracing them as opposed to just falling into them because they’re just “what you do”.
This method of identifying and correcting bad habits may sound a little whimsical, but Babauta likens it to the way we practise any activity we want to get better at, like a sport, driving a car or a new language. Big bad habits are easy to identify, but how do you sort out the smaller ones that could be making a big impact on your life? Share your tips in the comments below.
Life as a Conscious Practice [Zen Habits]
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