It’s 2:03 am at the time of writing.
I walked to the sitting room and as I lay down beside the standing fan my mind immediately flashed back to my secondary school days. I had a standing fan (something like it, but the type you hang on the wall) just beside my bed pointing directly at me.
The feeling of the breeze from the fan combined with the fact that I’m lying down was able to trigger the memory so vividly that it felt like I was back on my boarding house bed again. How does this story help you overcome bad habits and addictions? I’d get to it in a bit.
But it’s important you know that the brain is wired in such a way that a certain event can trigger a particular thought, feeling, or action. So much so that you can condition yourself to have an orgasm by simply touching your shoulder (or any part of your body) in a particular way (more on that in future articles…when I have the balls).
Have you ever, at work or school, felt hungry just as it gets to break time? Sure you have. Have you ever had a day when you wake up and you’re just feeling kind of super productive? You wash, sweep, mop, do thorough cleaning, and probably even read a book after that. That’s because no action exists on its own without a cause. There is always a domino effect playing in your mind at every given point in time.
You being so productive was triggered by the first productive thing you did that day. You being hungry during break time is triggered by the fact that you’ve become accustomed to eating at that time. It’s the same principle in play when we wake up everyday just before our alarm rings.
Every bad habit and every addiction has a trigger and you can’t deal with it without first addressing the trigger. Research shows that most bad habits and addictions are triggered by boredom. Mine was triggered by someone’s Whatsapp status I used to view. Yours might be a TV show you watch at night. Whatever the case may be the first step is to figure out what it is. And the second step? Cut it off? Impossible.
What Can You Do?
When you’re fasting do you cut off break time? Impossible — except you run the organization. So what do you do? You replace going to the canteen or refectory with another activity right? That’s it. You replace.
Replace the trigger or/and what you do when the trigger occurs. You can replace the TV show, so do that. Meanwhile, it’s not possible for you to never be bored, so replace the bad habit or addiction boredom triggers with something else. It doesn’t have to be something productive, in fact it’s easier if it’s something you like doing. I replaced my WhatsApp status with comedy videos.
Random fact: Biting your nails can be triggered by boredom. Also, a nagging wife can cause promiscuity. Think outside the box when trying to figure out your trigger.
Whatever it is though, replacing it won’t happen overnight. Remember you’re forming a new habit in essence, and forming new habits take time and consistency. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes.
Without commitment, you will never start. But more importantly, without consistency, you will never finish.
– Denzel Washington.
PS. Some habits are generational, but amazingly, they be overcome too.
About the author:
Greg Uzo is on a lifelong journey to inspire 1 billion people to positively impact the life of 1 person they know, and this is one of his mediums of documenting his progress.
PS. I’ll be honored to have you join me on this daring yet exciting journey by following me on Twitter.
