Why Are habits hard to break?

This article talks about how when you are faced with a tough decision, in most cases you either stick with the default option, or choose to do nothing.

This is because our confidence plays a major part in our decision making, if we are not confident in ourselves, then we will not be able to go against the default choice, like facing the fact that some of our habits aren't the best.
So my question is, are habits really that hard to break, and why do you think that we tend to not want to change our habits?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel as though habits are hard to break and we don't want to break them because that would require us to step out of our comfort zone. The more we start to do things and realize that there are no consequences and that those things feel good, whether superficially or on a visceral level, we stick with them and don't see why we should or should not change. If there is a situation in which our habits can have negative outcomes or consequences, we know that we probably should break them and step out of our comfort zones, but at the same time, we do what feels comfortable to us and what has never failed us before.

~Alicia Tabaka

Anonymous said...

I deffinatly agree that habbits ate very hard to break. I feel like people try to make there life go a certain way an when they are faced with a challange I feel like it is difficult to change that. In certain situations I feel like habbits can be changed an should be changed, it all depends on how severe the situation is an how the person feel. I no in my life I have had to make some changes in my habbits, sone that were easy and helpful others not so much, but I learned from both situations an I can now better myself from that.
~Jennifer giomblanco

Anonymous said...

I agree with the posts above on that habits are hard to break. When you are used to doing something for most of the time, it's hard to change that thing that you have been used to for so long. It makes a person question whether or not if it is really something that needs to be changed or if they can just remain the same. I feel that all people have some habit, whether good or bad, about them that should be changed. It gives them a chance to step out of something that they have known and see something else. By changing a habit, you are only making yourself a better person.

-- Brianna Maylor (: --

Natalia Zagula said...

It is the nature of the human brain to try to find organization in situations, everyday life, and tasks. Once a certain action in reaction to a situation is repeated many times, the brain becomes adapted to the action. Eventually, the individual acts out the action each time he or she approaches a similar situation. Sometimes when the individual faces the challenge to change that particular action, he or she becomes so overwhelmed by the idea, that they allow themselves to repeat the habit. Other times, the individual avoids changing the habit out of fear. Overall, to change a habit is to apply a lot of free will into a situation, which can be an extremley hard task to do under pressure.
-Natalia Zagula

Anonymous said...

Old habits are extremely hard to break, whether good or bad. Humans are creatures of habit by nature, and when we try to undo this, it is very hard to comprehend doing something or learning something new or that isn't normal to us. We tend to not want to change our habits because we are so used to them, and they are what make us feel comfortable. When we leave that comfort zone, we become scared and nervous because we are doing something that we don't know what the outcome will be. This is not to say that changing old habits is a bad thing; in many cases it can be beneficial to a person. Although it might not seem so at first, something out of the ordinary can be very good for a person's mental health.

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone else, old habits are extremely hard to break. We each have habits in which we are proud of, and others we aren't proud of but as much as we try to break off those habits they always seem to come back. It could be something like a cigarette addiction that can't be broken, or it could be something less severe like bitting your nails. I don't think it's so much as us not wanted to break our habits, because i know from my own experience as much as you can try to break a habit it always seems to come back one way or another. Overall, if the individual sets their mind to putting a stop for that so called "bad" habit it could be done.
~Caroline Ferreira