How To Tell If The Web Of Habits Is Robbing You Of Opportunities

The web of habits is a trap. This means that it has very subtle mechanisms that first support, but then involve and limit the terrain you move on.

However, over time you learn to balance the damage this does to you with the benefits it gives you. And then you go on like that, indefinitely.

The human brain is a fabulous organ, designed primarily to create. Creation is, in essence, the path that intelligence takes to solve problems. Intellectual faculties and the emotional world are at their peak when faced with a difficulty.

Habit is a way of delimiting the terrain of experience. One of the functions of routine is to reduce the amount of difficulties we must face daily. This, in a way, keeps us from thinking. We can move driven by inertia.

It’s good that we don’t have to think about everything we do, but when we get to the point of having everything decided in advance,  we first start to get bored and then we start to get depressed.

The human brain is designed for change, for novelty, and avoiding them has intellectual and emotional consequences. How do we know if we are being victims of the web of habits? Take these signs into account.

You spend more time on the urgent than on the important

We call “urgent” that which implies a duty. Habit prompts us to fill ourselves with duties , but these are almost always related to other people and not to ourselves.

That’s what usually drives us to act. There are work, academic, family, affective, ideological, etc. duties.

The important thing, on the other hand, has to do with what really determines our well-being and our sense of satisfaction with life.

Quality time with the people we love, for example. Or the reflection we owe ourselves about some feeling that bothers us and we don’t know why. For that, we never have time.

You think you should be content with what you have

When we are caught in the web of habits, we find ourselves uncomfortable. Although the routine leads us to have everything organized and decided in advance, we experience some kind of annoyance.

Despite this, we silence this voice that tells us that something is wrong. We often end up telling ourselves that “this is how it is” and that we should be content with it.

We feed this conformism, hiding behind ideas and assumptions (such as “maturity”) that are not always as reasonable as they seem.

An Effect of the Web of Habits: Fear of Risk

One of the most harmful effects of the habit is that it gradually makes us excessively afraid. Without realizing it, we end up feeling afraid of anything that is unfamiliar or that implies some kind of change or novelty.

A certain automatism seizes us. Every time we face something new, alarms go off as if we were facing a threat. We do not face changes with enthusiasm and curiosity, but with caution and fear. We lost the mood for the different.

postpone indefinitely

In the web of habits there are also times when we yearn for something different. We thought that perhaps we would be able to go further or we would feel more satisfied if we did this or that, if we dared to undertake some activity or if we dared to change.

The problem is that we almost always end up putting these dreams and projects in a drawer. There, they must wait until there are more favorable conditions, or an opportunity presents itself, or that certain conditions are fulfilled, etc.

In the end, most likely those dreams and desires will stay tucked away in that drawer forever.

The web of habits causes a lack of interest

One of the clear signs that we are stuck in habits is boredom. It manifests itself as a feeling of disinterest in everything. Nothing excites us enough and nothing passionately loves us.

We do not vibrate with life, superficial emotions predominate in relation to most things. Without being fully aware of it, we start to live as if we are “burning time”. We end up assuming this state as if it were natural and logical, when it isn’t.

Habit is a very powerful force. It is not negative in itself, as it gives us stability. But when it takes over everything, it becomes a net that binds us and suffocates us.

We must not give in to that. Small changes, like taking an alternate route or eating something different, can be good ways to get out of this prison.