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It’s a new year, which means new resolutions, or at least a new hope of ending this eternal search for the better version of ourselves. Ideally, we want to drop the bad habits, and acquire good ones, but virtually all of us fail in this endeavor, whether or not you make a public confession of it.
Well, try not to beat yourself up, too badly. Our brains have adapted, over an evolutionary period of time, to help your body perform routine behaviors efficiently, or at minimum cost. Like a corporate board on the eve of a new fiscal season, your brain is trying to cut overhead. How does it work? According to a 2010 study led by neuroscientist Ann Graybiel of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, a neural pathway (in a primate’s brain) changes to reduce the energy cost of a behavior for the benefit of a reward. The stronger the pathway becomes, the easier it is to perform a behavior in connection with it. After many reward cycles, this behavior can be performed at the cost of less energy. In an evolutionary sense, the conservation of energy may mean the difference between surviving any number of environmental or social conditions, and creating offspring. Over time, brains which are better at creating efficient behaviors gain a numerical advantage over the others. “Well, that’s great and very technical,” you’re thinking, “but how do I drop a bad habit?”
The answer is: to each their own method. At least it is comforting, to know that with self-disciple, it is possible to override old pathways, and build new ones. But, if it is of any use, I would like to share the way in which I personally generate motivation for habit change.
It all begins with Leibniz, and his ridiculous theodicy. I imagine that God, in his power, creates one Universe. Unlike Dr. Pangloss, I do not believe it is this one, the one in which you possess good and bad habits. No, it is the one in which you have only good habits. On the other hand, I imagine that Satan, in his power, also creates one Universe. It too is not this one, but the one in which you have only bad habits. Between these two polar worlds, are an infinite variety of other worlds, in which all your habits vary by moral degree. Every time you make a lifestyle change, for good or ill, you move closer to one of two worlds. This way, I recognize that good and evil are internal productions of the spirit, and that I am entirely responsible, in this state of free will, for the choices I make in life.
