AFFORMATIONS ON OVERCOMING BAD HABITS
For every question, there is an answer. Where everybody fails is by asking the wrong question.
— RICHARD DIAZ
What are habits and what makes them “good” or “bad”? Simply put, a habit is something you do repeatedly, usually without thinking about it. If you were to list your normal, everyday habits (for example, your daily routine), it would probably look something like this:
Sounds like a typical day, doesn’t it? And these are perfectly normal habits, right? The problem is that it’s not so much what we do as how we do it that creates either an abundant lifestyle or an unhappy one. That’s why I’d like you to look at how you are doing things as well as what you are actually doing.
For example, let’s look at the very first thing most people do in the morning: get up and get ready to go to work. How are you performing that simple act? Are you doing it grudgingly or gratefully? Happily or heavily? With agitation or with ease?
Does the conversation in your head sound something like this:
Another day, another dollar . . .
Back to the ol’ grind . . .
$#*&ing office . . .
Or is it: Gosh, I love my job! (Hey, stop laughing!)
It’s more important to look at how you are going through your day than what you are actually doing.
Next you find yourself at work and, uh, working. The question is: How are you performing your duties at work? Are you procrastinating on that big project, saying, “That’s not my job” and hoping someone else does it, miserably doing the least you possibly can and watching every minute on the clock tick by until day’s end? (Yes, I did all of these when I was working at jobs I hated!)
Or are you going through your daily checklist and getting things done as needed, asking for support and guidance when you need help, and looking for how you can add the most value to other people throughout your day?
If you’re doing things from the preceding paragraph, can you see how your day is going to be vastly different than if you’re doing things from the one before it?
Now let’s say you’re coming home after a day’s work. Do you:
Or do you:
It’s pretty clear which camp we want to be in. So how do we get there?
The Three Kinds of Habits, and How to Master Them
There are three kinds of habits:
In your life, your actions stem from your words, which come from your thoughts, which are your beliefs. That means your thoughts (beliefs) create your words, which create your actions, which create your results, which create your life.
The fascinating thing about your thoughts, as we’ve seen in this book, is that you have two levels of thought—conscious and subconscious. That’s why you might think you’re having one kind of thought, when in reality—and unbeknownst to you—you’re really having another. No wonder it can be so hard to overcome your Belief Gap!
Disempowering thoughts lead to habits we normally call “bad.” These are habits like procrastination, smoking, biting your fingernails, gritting your teeth, overeating, overspending, gossiping at work, lashing out in anger, and so forth. Taken to an extreme, bad habits can lead to addictions such as gambling, drugs, and worse.
Addiction is the soul’s way of hiding from itself.
When we look at habits in this way, we see that negative ones are caused by disempowering beliefs such as, Why does nothing ever work out for me? or even the most disempowering thought in human history: Why me?
Seen in this light, bad habits are actually a way to avoid feeling pain (for example, the pain of rejection, failure, loneliness, boredom, and so on). Bad habits and addictions, therefore, are the soul’s way of hiding from itself.
An anonymous reader sent me the following story:
Noah,
I saw your interview on TV and requested that the station have you on again!
I must also tell you that several weeks ago I spoke about your book and the wisdom it provides to about 25 people in my company division.
Today I saw some of those same people, and they are using Afformations. One of them even told me that I saved his life by telling him about your book.
He quit smoking five weeks ago and credits your book as the reason why. Now every time he gets the urge he asks himself, Why did I quit smoking?
He always gets the answers to support his decision, and thus fends off the temptation.
As for myself, my business has improved dramatically since I read your book and started using Afformations. Thank you so much!
A client named Tim sent me the following story:
I’m a consultant for a communications company and had been working with an elderly woman at her house on an issue she had with her home-security system. Every ten minutes, she went outside to have a smoke. After the fourth or fifth time, I asked her if she had ever thought of quitting. She said, “Every day for the last 20 years.”
I asked her what she had tried. She said that she’d tried just about everything: the patch, the pill, cold turkey, hypnosis, and many other things she couldn’t even remember. It was obvious to me that even though she didn’t like smoking, she just couldn’t quit.
I asked her if she would be willing to try one more thing. She said she would. I wrote this question on a piece of paper and put it on her refrigerator:
Why is it so easy for me to quit smoking this time?
I asked her to look at it once or twice a day and not to worry about answering it. She said she would.
I planned to check on her again in a couple of weeks, but got so busy that I couldn’t get around to it. About five weeks later, however, she had another issue and I needed to go to her house once again.
When I went back, this time I was at her house for over an hour and a half. During all that time, she didn’t go outside to smoke—not even once!
As I was leaving, I noticed that her smoking area was all cleaned up and there was no evidence of any cigarettes. I turned and looked at her. She said, and I quote, “I don’t know why it was so easy to quit this time.”
My response, “Wow, this Afformations stuff really works.”
Thanks, Noah!
In my coaching practice and mastermind programs, we don’t use the words good or bad to describe habits. Instead, we use the words productive and unproductive. Productive habits move us toward what we want, while unproductive habits move us away from what we want.
For example, most people say they want to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. However, habits like procrastination, overeating, and overspending do not move you toward those goals; they move you away from them.
Therefore, when thinking about your own habits, see if they are moving you toward what you say you want or away from it—and adjust accordingly.
Productive habits move us toward what we want; unproductive habits move us away from what we want.
Remember that The Afformations Method is based on science, not magic. You cannot simply say these new questions, continue to do the same things you’ve always done, and expect your life to change. If you don’t change your actions, you won’t change your results.
However, if your disempowering questions are keeping you stuck in habits that are taking you away from what you want, using Afformations can be a great first step to change your thoughts . . . then your words . . . then your actions . . . which can ultimately change your life.
Use the following Afformations to help you overcome procrastination, overeating, overspending, or any other bad habit you’d like to get rid of. Then take new actions, and get ready for the miracles in your life!