Đang tải... (xem toàn văn)
At least one third of our waking hours are lived on autopilot. But habits of the mind do not have to control us—we can steer them. Drawing on the latest research, psychologist Jeremy Dean explains why seemingly easy habits can prove difficult to form and how to take charge of your brain’s routines to make any change stick. Making Habits, Breaking Habits explains that it is possible to bend habits to your will—and become happier, more creative, and more productive.
[...]... an intuitive sense that our habits are built up purely in the service of our goals (remember that bad habits are also goal-oriented, although the goal may not be a good one, like getting drunk to forget one’s problems) Indeed, the stronger people’s habits, the more they believe that those habits are goal-oriented.2 Our intuitive sense that intentions lead straight into habits is far from just a lay... definitely want and intend to change Unfortunately, the problem comes with breaking down existing habits Although people intend to change, when habits are strong, actual behavior change is relatively low Despite all this talk of how weak intentions are in the face of habits, it’s worth emphasizing that much of the time even our strong habits do follow our intentions We are mostly doing what we intend to... we tried to change our behavior and failed because old habits intervened, there was a good reason: the sheer power of strong habits Studies show that it’s normal for strong habits to override our conscious intentions Combine that with how long habits take to form and it’s no wonder we find our everyday behaviors difficult to change So why do our habits not submit to our intentions? To answer that question,... we are being externally controlled In the same study, which asked about habits and pride, participants were also asked how much ownership they felt towards their habits The responses were once again underwhelming People were less sure of why they performed habits than non -habits; also, they thought they were less likely than non -habits to be caused by either the situation they were in or the other people... ways love itself is a binding together of habits Two people’s habits become intertwined so that, as interdependence increases, both people benefit from the routine activities within the relationship.11 What could be a more admirable habit than love? WORK HABITS Like almost every other area of human existence, workplaces are also hotbeds of habits At work, habits do a lot more for us than we might imagine... What we want isn’t what we get Part of the explanation is that habits can be performed unconsciously and strong habits are difficult to change, so this takes us part of the way there But, in this chapter, we take it a step further to show why a pigeon-theory of mind can’t explain how we perform habits For many of our everyday activities, our habits serve us very well, from getting dressed to looking both... the earlier studies by Wendy Wood Students who moved from one university to another tended to change their habits because their environments changed They weren’t seeing the same people or being exposed to the same cues so their TV watching habits, exercising habits, and so on changed With fewer habits being activated, they became more responsive to their own intentions What these examples demonstrate... standing in darkness; in contrast, dangerous habits, like drinking too much alcohol, creep up on people in a much more insidious fashion Although we don’t realize it, these disconnects between our everyday goals and the habits we perform are going on all the time Because we’ve built up such strong associations between habits and goals, we don’t notice when those habits stop achieving our goals because real... goal of keeping ourselves alive and unburnt is served by our automatic, unconscious habits It’s only for the minority of bad habits that we want to change that things become tricky There’s no doubt that there are plenty of occasions when we can successfully make or break our habits Still, what we find from the research on habits and intention is that our conscious decisions aren’t as strong as we’d like... start you’re making great progress upwards, but the closer you get to the peak, the smaller the gains in altitude with each step For a minority of participants, though, the new habits did not come naturally Indeed, overall, the researchers were surprised by how slowly habits seemed to form Although the study only covered 84 days, by extrapolating the curves, it turned out that some of the habits could . class="bi x1 y1 w2 h1" alt="" Making Habits, Breaking Habits Making Habits, Breaking Habits Why We Do Things, Why We Don’t, and How to Make Any Change Stick JEREMY DEAN A Member of the Perseus. TWO EVERYDAY HABITS 5The Daily Grind 6Stuck in a Depressing Loop 7When Bad Habits Kill 8Online All the Time PART THREE HABIT CHANGE 9Making Habits 1 0Breaking Habits 11Healthy Habits 12Creative Habits 13Happy. Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210. Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 97 8-0 -7 38 2-1 60 8-9 (e-book) Published by Da Capo Press A Member of