A Purposeless Habit

We've all said to ourselves about the need of keeping a beneficial habit but how often does it force you back into it when you've dropped out?

Yes, it's a picture back in 2015. Stop nagging.

It has been 50 long days and Andy hasn't produced anything in writing. Writing has always been something he does and on this site, a one-post-a-week disciplinary habit has never been broken for so long, or at all, except perhaps one sick break from a week. Writing isn't easy; it's time-consuming when no one asks you to do so. There's work, family, friends, Cookie, and a million other things. All of which speaks to us as they were more important than one another. At this point, Andy usually says, "prioritize". While that's what he did, there's a time even when that fails. Now that the dust has fallen, his conscience is taking back control!

There's "...an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.", said Scott Frothingham from Healthline. Most of us think about taking up exercising, reading, learning, whatnot, and we've heard time and time again that it fails shortly. You could find countless results telling you how to form one and therefore, we're discussing the opposite of it and how it comes back-- What makes you lose the habit and how to retrieve it.

There are many factors that can contribute to the undoing of a habit, namely too early, too late, too sick, too popular, too financially insufficient... but the punchline is that YOU need to have self-discipline, either/both using encouragement and/or punishment. But are either of them good?

It may not have occurred to you that a habit that you tried so hard to keep and succeeded could also be undone without your noticing. How can this happen? As previously mentioned, your behavior can become automatic, meaning you don't even realize taking that action anymore. Automatic ones may be brushing your teeth, putting the keys on the counter when coming back home. These have very little conflict in our daily lives, therefore less easy to lose.

Let's take a universal example. Things like going to the gym or setting up a yoga mat at home, and start a workout routine are prone to be less prioritized and easily quit within 3 months because "losing weight", "keeping fit", or "getting ripped" are such big goals it's as if you got a picture frame first and then think about the art. If you have an objective for what you want to do, chances are that you're going to stop before or after you reach it. Before you lose weight, you lose the thought of the goal.

What's Andy saying? How do you do something without expectations or knowing why? It's simple. You do it just because you like it; do it until you like it; do it because you've become good at it. Stop putting a timeline or false expectation on what you want to do like those books, vocabulary for TOEIC, 1 month & 6 packs abs, or learn in 8 weeks... you name it. Here's the idea. Life is calm and should not be about stimulus. You need friends to encourage you, and authority to punish you only before you are whole. That's why we give little gifts to children and money for older children/adults.

Back to habits. Does Andy like writing? Does he care about who reads it? Does anyone pay him for it? Yes, no, and no. He's always been writing since little, from WRETCH blogs(if you remember that Taiwanese Facebook thingy), short posts, movie afterthoughts, to now. NEVER has he earned anything other than self-development. Out In the real world, this may sound kind of sad because out there, money rules. If he was writing to show, he would've quit due to few viewers; if he was writing to make a living, he would've gone broke and never contemplate again; if he was writing to any external purpose at all, you wouldn't have seen this right now. He's writing for the sake of writing, for existing, and for himself. That's why he misses writing ever since he stopped. He wanted to exist again, in his world. He doesn't have a destination but he's going nonetheless.

Why do you go to a class after finishing mandatory education?

Why do you wake up early and go to work?

Why are you reading this article now?

Why do you?

#Selfreflect