Build Productive Habits | Life Lab
Posted on November 15, 2022
I haven’t given a single thought to brushing my teeth for something like forty years. It’s simply what happens when I first get out of bed in the morning and what I do last right before going back to bed at night. No choice involved, no willpower exerted. It is the purest form of habit.
I have my parents to thank for that one — I have no memory of them teaching me to brush. Somewhere in that prehistory of my childhood where all memories are lost or thick with fog, they gave me enough repetitions followed by that “Come here and breathe on me” accountability check that it sunk in good and deep as a twice-a-day habit.
As an adult, however, the work to build productive habits has felt a lot more difficult. Changing behavior is HARD. There is such a strong momentum in our daily lives, and so much of that pushing and pulling is informed by habits, many of which are just running in the background without you thinking about them. Unproductive habits make it more difficult to become the person you want to be. Productive habits become shortcuts to living a life you love.
The trick then, is about finding ways to introduce productive habits into your life that push out or replace the unproductive ones.