Changing Habits: Weird or Just Different?
2 Minute ReadLet's talk about changing habits. Picture this scenario: You walk into a restaurant and notice a guy in the corner who has a Mohawk. Is your first thought, “Oh gosh, that’s weird!”?Or, have you ever let someone drive you to a location that you could drive to in your sleep? When they don’t take the exact way that you always drive, you think, “This is the wrong way! Why is he going such a weird way?”What about procedures at work? Have you ever done something the same way for a long time, and then all of a sudden, your company introduces a new procedure that’s completely different from everything you’ve ever done? You think, “Ugh! This is NOT RIGHT! It’s weird.”As human beings, it’s our nature to think this way. These habits help us make sense of our world. When something doesn’t seem right, a red flashing light in the back of our mind says, “STOP! Something’s wrong. Something is WEIRD!” Typically, we listen to that flashing light. We stop; we turn around; correct whatever it was that we were doing before, and go back to doing things the same old way. As human beings, it's natural for us to resist changing habits.
As human beings, it's natural for us to resist changing habits.
What would happen if instead of stopping, we used that flashing light in our brains as a signal to move forward? To challenge the status quo. It could be our signal to change. To make things better. What would happen if we changed our way of thinking? Albert Einstein once said, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” We spend day after day wishing things would be better; nagging about something that’s never going to change. What would happen if WE initiated that change? And who says we can’t? Sometimes the flashing light is going off for our own safety. But other times, it's just because we are uncomfortable with something that is unfamiliar. And though we may feel frozen at the time, in reality, we always have a choice.In his video, Derek Sivers shares examples of things that may seem weird to us in America. But in other countries it’s perfectly normal; we are the weird ones. So the next time that red flashing light goes off in the back of your mind, challenge yourself. Think about it. Is it weird…or just different?[bctt tweet="As human beings, it's natural for us to resist changing habits." username="RevelaGroup"]Want to turn your goals into habits? Here are some tips!Want to challenge the status quo? We can help.