Habits and attitudes

Habits are actions we repeat over and over again, without thinking much about them. They are learned responses. We all have them – good ones and bad ones. The area in your brain that ‘remembers’ your habits doesn’t make judgements about whether a habit is good or bad – as long as you do something often enough, it becomes a habit and slips from conscious activity to subconscious activity.

Driving is a habit. When you first learn to drive, all your thoughts are very conscious. You have to think about when to take your hand off the wheel to change gear, when to look in the mirror, when to take your foot off the accelerator or hit the brake. It is uncomfortable – because you have to think about it consciously.

However, when you have passed your driving test and have been driving for a while, you may think about what is going on outside the car, but little conscious thought goes into the operation of the vehicle. It has become a habit – or subconscious activity.

Trying to persuade someone to change a habit is difficult – because they now have to remember to think about it every time they do it. It’s easier to do it the way they have learned – so changing habits is resisted, usually quite strongly.