The Habit: Week-9 (Identify ONE Bad Habit, Interrupt and Replace It)

 “First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they’ll eventually conquer you.” – Rob Gilbert

This week’s challenge is to identify ONE bad habit and replace it. Everyone has bad habits because we are both emotional and logical beings. Bad habits exist because we rationalize the behavior with fallacious logic. For example, a person that is drowning in debt will rationalize another purchase they cannot afford with the old standby, “what the hell, I’ll never get out of debt anyway.”

Somehow this logic makes sense to us, but could you imagine Spock from Star Trek saying that, or even budgeting expert Dave Ramsey saying it? Of course not. That is the erroneous logic that created this person’s crisis in the first place. Most crises are an accumulation of bad decisions. Rarely is it one gigantic error in judgment. Continue reading “The Habit: Week-9 (Identify ONE Bad Habit, Interrupt and Replace It)”

THE SURPRISING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR

Most people know that attitude effects behavior, but the reverse is also true. You can change your attitude and character by changing your behavior. Did you know that forcing yourself to smile will improve your mood? In the military, I was taught that false motivation was better than no motivation. I thought it was just a means of getting us to push ourselves harder during tough training, which it did, but I also discovered that it changed my attitude. Pretend motivation, leads to genuine motivation.

Our mind seeks harmony between our attitudes and behaviors. The psychological term that describes a disharmony between attitude and behavior is called cognitive dissonance. When we perceive a divergence between our attitude and behavior, we will either change our attitude, or our behavior to minimize the disharmony. Continue reading “THE SURPRISING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR”

Why Some People Will Always Struggle with their Weight

Image by Ed Yourdon

Do you know anyone that says they are “big boned” or they are “happy being overweight?” Anyone whose identity or happiness is linked with being overweight will always struggle with their weight.

They might lose weight for an event, like a wedding, but inevitably they will return to their old weight because it is tied to who they are. Our identity is who we believe we are. If we believe we are destined to be overweight, because everyone in our family is, then that is what we will be. Genetics play a role, but we shouldn’t use it as an excuse. Many people from overweight families have lost weight and kept it off. Continue reading “Why Some People Will Always Struggle with their Weight”