Looking for Satisfaction in all the Wrong Places?

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The person seeking mastery in business or any area of life must appreciate the might of the force of habit and must understand that practices create habits. We must be quick to break those habits that can break us and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help us achieve the success we desire.

First, you must understand the only reason habits persist is that they offer some satisfaction. We allow them to persist by not seeking another, better form of satisfying the same needs. In fact, every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way, by finding that it is a means of satisfaction. So ask yourself what need that bad habit is meeting and then ask God to show you better ways for that need to be met. For example, do you eat when you are depressed to give yourself comfort? What other practice could you choose that would provide comfort without being harmful to your health?

One reason we fail at good habits is that we sometimes bite off more than we can chew. If you haven’t been exercising for years and you decide that you’re going to jog five miles a day because your neighbor does, you’re probably in for a rude awakening! Don’t set yourself up for failure. It is better to set yourself up for a small, but sure success and then build upon that, than to plan a marathon this weekend and be hospitalized at mile three!