Habits are memorized solutions. When your mind figures out how to get something done, it saves the solution, which is reinforced whenever you apply it. Driving a car, eating a meal, and reading written text are all memorized solutions. It took you a lot of effort to learn these skills, but today you can replay these known patterns instead of starting from scratch every time.
Habits are your mind’s approach to time management. It would be extremely inefficient for you to consciously decide how to spend every minute of every day. Your conscious mind has better things to do than solve the same problems over and over, so it delegates known problems to your subconscious mind in order to recall and apply the memorized solutions.
Whenever you delegate problems to your subconscious mind, your conscious mind is free to focus on higher-level functions. Unfortunately, your innate habit-forming powers have some significant drawbacks. Sometimes your subconscious mind will memorize inefficient, inaccurate, or ineffective solutions. You may learn that smoking is a good way to handle stress or that complaining is the best way to garner sympathy and attention. In order to align yourself with truth, love, and power, you must eventually uproot and replace habits that have serious negative side effects.
In this Habits section, you’ll begin to consciously evaluate your current habits, identify positive changes you’d like to make, and learn practical techniques to make permanent shifts. This will not be easy. Even when you know what to do and how to do it, changing ingrained habits can be very difficult. The comprehensive approach presented herein will give you a definite edge in this area, but ultimately your success will be determined by your alignment with the seven principles: Truth, Love, Power, Oneness, Authority, Courage, Intelligence.
* Source: Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina