Personal Development and Habits

The following article is from the new book, Getting Personal: A Guide to Personal Development by author and speaker, John Patrick Hickey.  To read more from John Patrick Hickey or to get his books, training and book him to speak to your church, business or group, visit our website at www.johnpatrickhickey.com.  

Habits are something we all have in common. We may not have the same habits, but we all have habits. Some are great habits to have, and some are good for us. Some habits are not so good, and some can even be deadly. We never seek to be free from habits, but we do need to control them. Success-minded people work hard to build good habits and remove those that can cause us to be less than we can be.

Let me first put to rest an age old myth about habits. We have all heard that it takes 28 – 30 days to create or break a habit. That is not at all true. You can create a habit in a matter of days, maybe even hours, and you can break a habit in seconds – yes, seconds! Habits are based on a power we all possess, and that is called making a decision. It is the decisions you make, not the behavior you adopt, that creates or destroys a habit.

We also need to understand the difference between a habit and an addiction. When we talk about breaking a chemical addiction, we are no longer just talking of a habit. There is a physical component here that has to be dealt with as well. Having said that, it can still be overcome, and decision making plays a big part in that process.

I am not a medical expert, nor am I an authority on addictive behaviors, but I have spent many years working with people who have been slaves to their bad behavior. I will say this from what I have learned and seen: when the desire to overcome anything in life is strong enough, there is little that can be done to stop it from happening. The greatest power in the universe given to mankind is the power of choice. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

Personal development is the ability to choose and control the habits in your life. You will see that there really are three types of habits that we all deal with on a daily basis: good habits, bad habits, and life habits. The last of these is the one we really never think about, nor do we have to.

Personal development and the achievement of your dream will not happen on its own. It takes action and that action has to happen now. Click on the Free Membership button in the side bar and start your journey to achievement today!

© 2016 John Patrick Hickey. No part of this may be reprinted or published without permission of the author.