Don't Forget Your Habitual Self is Player Two 🎮
We assume that life is a single-player game. We control our habits and behaviors. Our intentions dictate our actions. This is the trap of introspection illusion; a cognitive bias that causes overconfidence in our internal state.
In reality, your habitual self is player two. They take over when you get exhausted from the daily grind of life.
You both play the game but at different times.
"You" use deliberate intentions. Weigh possibilities. Use your wealth of knowledge and beliefs to make a decision.
Your habitual self just cares about whatever worked in the past. They are an efficiency machine. They don't have access to your feelings, knowledge, or attitude. "Good" or "bad" habits are meaningless to them.
Our habitual selves are part of our human evolution; mental shortcuts that allow us to live an efficient life. You will never be able to play the game on single-player mode.
This makes the power of our habits even more important in our daily lives. Make sure you train player two so when you go offline and they take the controls, it’s in harmony with who you want to be.
Homework Assignment for the Month
Bring a bit of awareness to your second self. Try to identity a few behaviors you didn't know about before. When you are on autopilot, what happens?
Never Say "I Don't Have Time"
Last month, I talked about focusing on what is essential in the week. You can't focus without considering time management. We often mistakenly think we are time poor. If only we had more time, we could get more done. Below is a terrific TED talk by Laura Vanderkam that breaks that myth. [11 min~]
Three takeaway points
We don't build the lives we want by saving time, we build the lives we want and then time saves itself.
Often, when we say, we don't have time, what we really mean is it is not a priority. Time is a choice.
24 X 7 = 168 hours. That is a lot of time!
Feedback on the newsletter is always welcomed, just hit reply.
Thanks for reading. Be well.
Irfan
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Don’t Try to Will Your Habits, Cultivate Them — yournexthabit.com If you are starting a new habit, the first question you should be asking is, "Where does this habit fit into my environment?"