“A habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.” – Wikipedia

This short definition provides everything we need to know about a habit. In my opinion, the most important part is that habits tend to occur subconsciously. Because of this, I’m wondering how much control we really have over our behavior. We come up with the intent, but we rely on our habits to execute based on that intent.

Most of the time we’re not aware that our behavior is based on habits and we tend to say that it’s just the way we are. The thing is that the way we are doesn’t necessarily decide the way we can be. Our potential is not defined by our reality. Of course, we’ll tend to resist any change we don’t want to happen and we’ll throw sh*t towards the people that critique our behavior. We’ll keep saying that “if you love me, you’ll accept me the way I am!” because it seems impossible to change when we don’t want to.

The American Journal of Psychology defines a “habit, from the standpoint of psychology, [as] a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.” If a habit is acquired through previous repetition, it means that if we start something new and we repeat it enough times, we’ll develop a new habit. Some habits will shorten our life (e.g. excessive drinking, excessive junk food eating, excessive smoking and so on), whilst others will increase our life (e.g. exercising, eating fruits and vegetables, meditation). The more bad habits we have, the shorter our life will be. If we want some changes, we’ll need to commit to creating some new, healthy habits that bring the same satisfaction as the old, bad habits. The key here is the reason. Without it, we cannot push through.

Here are some people that managed to create some great habits for them and thanks to that; they were able to bring their lives to the next level.

Which ones of your habits have the potential of decreasing your life expectancy?