Like many people from my generation, I’ve watched a lot of the over-the-top media that abounds in the world, the stuff that seems to scream “go to extremes!”. And after a while, I started to believe that was the only way to do anything. But, it doesn’t work in real life, at least not for long and not without repercussions (burnout, etc.).

Of course, that’s obvious to anyone with balance in their lives. But if you are exposed to certain ideas enough you will start to believe them. This is called the illusory truth effect, a rampant phenomenon from what I can tell.

What people should actually do, if they want to better their lives, is to build one good habit. It seems too easy, but one habit can change the trajectory of our lives; it sets the stage for other good things to come in.

Even a simple habit, like making the bed each morning, can slowly pull us out of a rut.

“The human will, that force unseen, the offspring of a deathless soul, can hew a way to any goal, though walls of granite intervene.”

– James Allen (As A Man Thinketh)

Action Leads to “Embodied Knowledge”

Much of my work could be categorized as self-help. The core intent of all self-help writing (and similar motivational genres) is to help us to believe in ourselves. But, a piece of writing or a video can only guide us. We can get intellectual insights from other people’s experiences, but we have to take action to gain real wisdom.

If we are trying to learn how to swim, we might ask a friend to teach us. We can learn intellectually from their examples and get a decent foundation. We might get a basic idea of how to hold our hands to achieve the most force against the water, or how to kick our feet.

But to get to the point where we can fearlessly jump into the deep end of a pool, we have to have trust in our abilities, which come only as a result of our effort to learn. Once we’ve grown proficient in our ability to swim, we don’t need to think about cupping our hands just right or kicking our feet perfectly, our body just performs as needed.

What was once only intellectual knowledge has turned into embodied knowledge, it is now a an ability we can likely use the rest of our lives.

Building a New Habit Forces Us to Grow

Forming a good habit takes knowledge, decisiveness, effort, getting out of our comfort zone, and a little “jumping into the deep end“. But, the process can change everything about us. It can shift our perspective and cause doors to open that wouldn’t have opened otherwise, while also giving us unforeseen insights.

It doesn’t matter why we believe in a habit, only that we do. Perhaps we’re building the habit simply because we enjoy it or because of benefits that others have touted. Belief enables us to build the habit and the habit in turn reinforces our belief in ourselves.

~ Best wishes,