How do you put on your shoes?

If you are like most of the rest of us, you are a God-created original who has taken the Creator’s handiwork and turned it into something highly habitual. For our good, or to our detriment, most of us live deeply habitualized lives.

The average person has no real inclination of the depth of habit they have developed in their lives. Here are just a few simple ones …

• • Putting on both socks, then both shoes. Some put on left sock, then left shoe; others, right sock, then right shoe. Whatever the pattern, it’s the same every day, often for life.
  • Arranging food on a plate the same way every meal.
  • Eating the same foods.
  • Keeping the same daily routine for years or decades.
  • Taking the same route to and from work every day.
  • Sitting in the same place, especially at church.
  • Reading the same select authors.
  • Watching the same shows.
  • Shopping the same stores.
  • Doing the same recreation.
  • Spending time with the same people.
  • Keeping furniture in the same place for years or decades.

If we gave it some thought, we would likely discover our lives to be a mass of habits carried on for years, if not a lifetime.

Some habits are good for us. Brushing our teeth should be a habit. So should exercise and adequate rest. We could create a list of things that should be consistent aspects of our lives.

We could also create a list of things that should be eliminated from our lives. From our poor diet and lack of exercise, to how we think about and treat some people, to who God really is to us, there are some things that have become habits that need to change.

When we develop habits of certain patterns of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving, we find our lives regulated by these developed patterns often at a subconscious level; the habit becomes so deeply ingrained we simply think, feel, or act in a certain manner automatically, as a matter of habit. And that can, at some point, cause us some problems. Habits can bring automatic thoughts, feelings, or reactions to situations and interactions that call for original thought, emotion, and behavior.

A good counselor serves his or her clients by helping them see how they have habitualized certain patterns of thinking, as well as emotional and behavioral patterns, and helps them assess the benefit or detriment these habits bring to a life. Further, they help their clients learn to de-habitualize bad habits for better choices, and help them learn how to build good habits into their lives. Yes, some things really do need to be habitualized into the core of our being.

But for many, it doesn’t take a counselor to work on bringing about such real change. Some good time in prayer, some biblical insights, yielding to the Holy Spirit, and a piece of paper and pencil (or preferred electronic device), are all many need to begin this process of identifying current bad habits that need to go, and new habits that need to be started.

If you want to bring some real change to your life, I encourage you to give some focused consideration to the habits — real and lacking — in your life, and then apply yourself to breaking some and making others.

Scotty