A Philosophical Approach to Building Better Habits

Be more analytical and deliberate about your daily routines

Habits are part of your life, whether you love or hate them. Good habits can improve your quality of life and help you achieve your goals; bad habits can prevent you from moving forward and keep you stuck in a rut.

A habit is a fixed series of actions we perform almost daily. They are behaviours triggered automatically due to an external cue or trigger; conscious thought processes do not initiate them.

Moreover, habits tend to be highly predictable, which means they occur precisely the same way at the same time and place almost daily.

Habits are powerful. They keep you going when motivation is low and drive your actions faster than conscious thought. Because of this, habits can also be dangerous. Left unchecked, bad habits will run your life. But you already know that.

Be more conscious of your repeatable behaviours

“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.” — Blaise Pascal