{By: Martin Grunburg]
The other morning, after I barely managed to keep my Burpee streak alive (40 days strong, podcast episode: Anyone Can Do It!), I took our dog Roxy to the park.
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The local park is about a block away. We do this pretty much every morning, Roxy and I. But these days she’s not playing as much Frisbee as she used to. (Podcast Episode: The End)
Actually, these days, we’ll just walk down toward the sailboats near the bay and take in the sun for 10 or 15 minutes.
As I sat down near the water fountain and sailboats, a light breeze blowing over the bay, I noticed a clamp on the sand, like a hiker’s shackle.
The many parks around Mission Bay and San Diego, in general, tend to become a hub for transients — the homeless — many of whom have substance abuse problems, unfortunately. As I looked at this shackle, I thought how it was almost certainly the type of tool one of the transients might accidentally have left behind.
I didn’t give the shackle much further thought, other than saying to myself something I’ve often said — that if I were in their shoes I’d live here too.
As I sat there, I began to ponder our upcoming Habits 2 Goals podcast episode, an “FAF” (Frequently asked Friday). The question du jour was scheduled to be, “What Binds Us?” Or, “What Binds You?”
Ponder That For A Moment
When you think of what it is that really holds you back, what is your first thought? What answer or excuse do you naturally come up with?
Money? Influential contacts? No lucky breaks? Not disciplined enough?
What keeps YOU from (to sound totally clichéd) getting to that next level?
For instance, if you aspire to be at “Y” in terms of profession or income and you are at “X,” how will you elevate your game? How will you change your results?
In fact, how can ANYONE break free? What is holding any of US back?
The more I pondered that question, sitting there overlooking the sailboats on the bay, I ran through all the same, typical excuses.
In fact, I ran though the common, broader comment I will often hear. “It’s me. I am holding myself back.”
While that is the beginning of a really good answer, we can make a far more powerful and subtle distinction.
The more I pondered the idea of “I,” as in, “I am holding myself back,” the answer became inescapable. The awareness was as glaring as the morning sun: There is no “I.”
“We” don’t hold ourselves back. “We” are just a compilation of our recurring thoughts and behaviors. Correct: OUR HABITS.
All “we” really are is our character, and our character is the sum total of all our thought and behavior HABITS to this moment.
To put it most simply: WE ARE OUR HABITS.
Therefore, if we’re trying to get to “Y” and we’re at “X,” there is a very good chance that those same thought habits and behavior habits that got us HERE won’t get us “THERE”
Who you and I are — WHO we have become right at this moment — is the result of ALL our thought and behavior habits to this moment. In fact, the Latin etymology of habit is HABIT•US, meaning “condition and/or character.”
We are the sum total of all our thought habits and our behavior habits.
Thus, the simple math looks something like this:
What truly binds us are our habits.
That binding sensation that we feel from one day to the next, that frustration as we aspire to new goals and ideals, is NOT “ourselves.” It IS the force of habit. And the beauty is this, my friend: That same force that binds you MUST be, and can be, the same force that sets YOU free.
And, that freedom comes only when we conscientiously and intentionally craft new habits that are aligned with our goals. #habitalignment
Yes. There’s an app for that.
Thus, one of my all-time favorite habit quotes by Ambrose Bierce: “Habit, n.: A shackle for the free.”
(see image above ; )
~mg