What to do when you break a habit

Habit Pitfalls

Hey everyone, this is Allan. I’m recording right after the previous video, and I want to talk about the best way to avoid breaking habits. The natural tendency is to let habits slip; the easiest path is the lazy one, where we skip what we’re supposed to do. That’s what usually happens.

Immediate Recovery

Yesterday, I was supposed to record a video on Saturday and publish it on Sunday. I missed the recording on Saturday, it was my fault, but I got lucky because I had recorded the video on Friday, so the Saturday video still got published. I didn’t fail at publishing, but I did fail at recording. I thought about skipping recording today as well and just publishing on Monday, taking the weekend as a break. That would have meant two days without recording, breaking the habit twice in a row.

When you miss a habit, the best thing to do is to do it right away the next day and not let the lapse repeat. It’s better to fail and understand that failure is normal when you’re building habits. You might miss a day or two, but you shouldn’t treat that as the end of the habit, you just need to start again.

So I started again today and recorded two videos: one to make up for the missed Saturday recording and another for today’s Monday video. The message is simple: don’t let your habit fail two days in a row. If you slip, restart immediately.

Religious Parallel

I’m Catholic, and the same principle applies to spiritual life. We all commit sins and feel ashamed when we repeat the same mistakes. Don’t let that shame push you farther from God. Repent, restart, and treat each mistake as an opportunity to begin anew. Shame can keep you from trying to improve, so humility and a quick restart are essential.

Takeaway

The lesson is to be humble and start again. You will fail, and things won’t always go as planned. We are sinful by nature, and that’s okay, as long as we recognize it and keep moving forward.

That’s it for this video. See you in the next one.