Do you know yourself?

It is a fact that to correctly evaluate yourself you must evaluate your habits as they are the true reflection of your behavior. Good habits are as addictive as bad ones once caught. According to a scientific research, approximately 40 to 45% of our behavior is the outcome of our daily habits. Your habits tell a lot about you, and one can even predict the outcome of your behavior just on the basis of your habits. Let’s explore this a bit further.

What are habits?

According to an abstract from Duke University, “Habits are response dispositions that are automatically activated by the contextual cues that co-occurred with responses during past performance”. While one is learning a response, “basal ganglia” associated with the pre-frontal cortex is engaged and supports working memory, so you can make decisions. When the behavior is repeated in the same context, the information gets reorganized in the brain and it shifts to a sensory-motor loop. It is in this loop that core habits play out in the process as defined as cue-routine-reward; a concept well explained by Charles Duhigg in his book – ‘The Power of Habit’.

 

A functional understanding of our habits lets us interpret and examine our behavior in order to correctly gauge ourselves. For example, if you habitually get up early, there is a high probability of you being punctual.  Students highly interested in sports at an early age are found, to continue the same in college and also ahead as well.

 

Habits like daily journaling when inculcated serve as a de-stressor. This confluence of good habits culminates in bringing a positive change in the individual. Journaling or performing a review will help you calmly assess the day gone by, and prepare for the upcoming day.

 

(Note: However, certain habits are called as Keystone habits, because they have the ability to trigger a series of habits that are in similar nature. One such example is exercising. It has been found if a person engages in regular exercise then he/she is likely to follow other good habits like eating better etc.

 

So, on a conclusive note know your habits as they define you and rather try not to eliminate a good habit but rather replace it with a better one.

 

(An awareness initiative by Sandip University)