A lot of us may have heard the old adage, human being are creatures of habits. Our brain is smart enough to understand where to take short cuts and use this information to minimize energy consumption while maximizing productivity.
Habits are like shortcuts, helping us accomplish a task with limited resources while trying to conserve as much of glucose as possible. What this also tells us is that our mind loves habits and once we get into one, it is easier to stay true to it.
Imagine you got a new job and now you are driving to this new place taking a new route. Not the one you are used to when you were in your previous job. How does it feel? Do you feel annoyed as you try to remember which turns to take or which road to follow, all the while trying to keep a mental track of time as well?
It does feel annoying at first; however, as we perform this commute repeatedly, we do not even realize the time by when we reach our offices.
Why do we feel annoying at first even though we manage to perform this act almost unconsciously later?
The answer is twofold –
- One because we get used to it, a teleological reasoning though and
- Secondly, anything done repeatedly becomes a habit and habits are performed without much attention, which leads to lesser energy intake, and this makes our brains happier leading to absence of annoyance later.
The golden rule is to keep repeating things, continue doing them until it become a part of our routine and once that happens, just like an airplane, we get on in an auto pilot mode.
So, when you think of starting to read, exercise, diet, learn or try to become a better listener, just remember, initial few seconds, minutes and hours will be extremely exasperating, but we should be able to look at what we will get after that – a new habit, an auto pilot taking us to our ideal state.
deepak sharma writes 