One Day, And One Day Only
May 6, 2020•234 words
352
Habits are the most important thing in our daily lives. They make us. They determine our succesess, failures, relationships, and most other things that happen every day.
I've written about habits plenty of times. They are probably my most common topic. Or at least in the top three. Yet, there is one rule I seem to have missed:
Never miss more than one day
This rule applies both to habit-building and habit-breaking.
When building a new habit, the first dozens of times you'll have to conduct it as a concious action until it becomes automated. If you let it slip for more than one day, the whole automation process will fail and you'll have to start again. Just a single day may be a tiny anomality, unnoticed by the unconcious.
Also, if you're working on breaking an exisiting habit you've dermined as bad, and so you'd like to get rid of it, breaking the resistance for more than one day will break your progress. For example, if you're restraining from eating bad food (whatever that is for you), allowing yourself a treat once will not do much damage. But, if you buy a whole container of bad food, and eat a portion of it every single day for five days, the bad habit will come back and hurt you.
Emergencies do happen. But they also always end. In some way or another.