Crushing the Unlearning Curve
Of course humans are fully capable of learning new things! We are adaptable, just not always willing.
More often than not, learning new things would require you to be deliberate and proactive: it requires active decision making and harnessing intentional productive emotions to learn a new skill or create something new.
In the same way that you learn a new sport, skill, or hobby, you can unlearn an old habit.
Unlearning an old habit also requires you to be proactive.
You may have heard that “old habits die hard”. But that’s just a saying. It can be a lot easier than you think. And that’s the point: you have to *think* in order to unlearn a habit that has seemed to become a reflex or almost automatic response to a stressful situation.
Because most “bad” habits (aka: the habits we have but don’t necessarily like) start off as a learned response to getting relief from a stressful situation. And unlearning that habit is as simple and doable as becoming aware of the thoughts that create the urge to do that habit.
Unlearning bad habits = Simple. You just start with thinking.
And one of the first things to think about is to identify why you want to kick the habit in the first place. And then you could think about what life would be like without the habit. Don’t forget to think about what would happen if you don’t break the habit.
All of these good “thinks” are part of the proactive process for breaking your bad habits because they help formulate your unique and compelling reason. And the more you desire and believe in your compelling reason, the more likely you will be to take action to go after it and succeed!
When you give your brain the support (space, time, encouragement) it need to think about your life beyond this bad habit and to find evidence which supports “better” desire (the desire for a life that’s fulfilled with true pleasures rather than false ones), the easier it’ll be to make a plan and actually unlearn your habit and create better ones.
