Starting New Habits

A man encountered an old Cajun wearing a strange necklace and asked him about it. “It’s made of alligator teeth,” the Cajun said. “Oh, I see,” said the man, “like a string of pearls people wear in other parts of the country.” “The only difference is,” said the Cajun, “anybody can open an oyster.”

Anybody can stay in the ruts and follow old habits formed long ago. Only those who strive for excellence start new habits.

Ninety percent of life is habit. In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do.” God designed us that way. The brain learns to command the body to perform activities that we do repeatedly without the need of conscious effort. That’s why you don’t have to think about every step when you’re walking down a sidewalk, or why you’re able to type emails without looking down at the keyboard. Neural pathways form in the brain based on continual behaviors. The more we do something, the stronger these circuits become. With enough repetition, actions become automatic.

The good news is that we can create new neural pathways by changing our behavior. It takes a great deal of effort, but with enough repetition, a new habit may be formed, creating new neural pathways. Maybe you’ve heard someone say that if you do something 21 days in a row, it becomes a habit. (The science says it’s more like 66 days.) Work at quitting bad behaviors and replacing them with good behaviors long enough, and a new you emerges.

At the end of the year we look back with regret over what we failed to do. “Why didn’t I read my Bible more?” “Why don’t I call my family more often?” “Why can’t I seem to break this bad habit?” “What has happened to my prayer life?” You don’t have to stay in a rut. With a little effort, you can introduce new habits that will change who you are.

Break out of mediocrity. What new habits will lead to new excellence in your life?

Drew Kizer