What If Your Worst Habit Disappeared?

I've been sitting with a question lately:

How much do you think your life would change if your worst or most self-defeating habit immediately went away?

Not improved slowly.  Not managed better.  Not reduced by 20%.  Gone.

Which is it for you?  Procrastination?  Overeating?  Avoidance?  Anger?  Self-doubt?  Scrolling?  The need for approval?  Quitting when something gets uncomfortable?  

On a side note, I believe that having any one of these habits (or whatever it is for you) opens the door for any of the other self-defeating reactions.  

But to my original question:  What would actually change?

Would your health improve?  Would your marriage or relationship feel different?  Would your confidence come back?  Would you finally finish the thing you keep talking about starting?  Would you be more present with your family?  Would your money situation improve?  Would your peace of mind finally have room to breathe?

I wonder how often we seriously ask ourselves that question.  My guess is not often enough.  Maybe we don’t ask because if we did, we might have to admit something uncomfortable:  one habit may be costing us more than we want to acknowledge.

Isn’t it easier to just say life is complicated?  Isn’t it easier to blame luck, timing, circumstances, stress, other people, or a lack of motivation?  I believe sometimes those things are real.  More than likely, though, sometimes the biggest obstacle isn’t the “world”.  Sometimes it’s the pattern we keep repeating while pretending we don’t see it.  You know - the insanity of doing the same thing and expecting different results.  

That's what gets me.

Most of us (present company included) know the habit.  We may not talk about it out loud, but we know.  Yet, many of us never run the experiment of finding out who we could become without it.

Maybe it’s because the answer scares us.  If removing one habit could change everything, then we also have to face the uncertainty of what comes with that change.  For those who enjoy familiar territory, that is not a comfortable thought.

But maybe it's a useful one.

I’ll ask with a bit more specificity:  If your most self-defeating habit disappeared today, what would your life look like six months from now?

And the harder question:

What is stopping you from finding out?



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