The connection between courage and breaking habits

On Monday morning Sam went to a job interview hoping that he would get that job he was after. When Sam first stepped inside the building he started feeling afraid. As time passed and as his turn approached Sam became more and more fearful until they called out his name.

Sam went inside the room to find three interviewers instead of one. At this point Sam couldn’t take it anymore; he dropped his CV, ran to the door and left the building as if a lion was running after him.

Sam was a coward, right? After all he ran right at the time when he should have been brave the most.

Sadly, most addicts are like Sam, they escape from the pain and from their unsolved problems by running to an addiction that allows them to forget about their pain.

Some people are obese not because they can’t stop eating but because they run to food whenever they can’t cope with life problems and since their lives are not going in the direction they want they keep eating and eating until they become over weight.

These people might try all the known diets in the world without getting any results and in the end they lose hope and believe that nothing can be done about their weight. In such a case dealing with their obesity problem shouldn’t be done by focusing on controlling their food intake at all but it should be done by learning how to deal with the reasons that affect their desire to eat.

In order for these people to lose weight they need to be braver and to deal with their real problems instead of just focusing on reducing their food intake.

Contrary to common beliefs courage is the most important trait required to break a habit and not will power because in order for a person to admit that he was addicted to habit just to escape from another problem it would require a great amount of courage.

Procrastination has many root causes and the causes vary from one person to the other but one common cause of procrastination is escaping a task because of the perceived difficulty associated with it. This means that the person who procrastinates is actually afraid to take a step to start his task and that’s why he logs on his facebook, checks his mail or watches TV instead of doing what he is supposed to do.

Pornography addiction doesn’t mean that you have abnormal hormone levels or that you love sex but it might mean that you are escaping from life by withdrawing to your virtual world. If your social life is not going well or if you have no one to hang out with you then might develop pornography addiction because of wanting to escape the fact that you are a loner.

Some people who have poor relationships with the opposite sex get their relief by becoming addicted to pornography. In such a case the main cause behind their bad habit is the desire to compensate for the intimacy they lack with the opposite sex. So sex itself is not the problem but it’s just a method that the person uses to forget about the real problem.

Why do heavy drinkers drink a lot? Is it because of social drinking? No, not everyone who goes to social gatherings drinks heavily. They do it because they want to escape from the real world. They didn’t manage to find what they wanted in real life and that’s why they want to escape to another place. Had they liked their current mental state they would have fought to keep it but since it’s full of negativity they try to escape from it by drinking.

What about you?
Are you escaping from your unsolved problems by becoming an addict?
Is your addiction a result of being unable to cope with your life problems?
Are you addicted to something because you can’t tolerate some bad emotions?

You need to be really brave before you answer these questions. For years and years people try to defend their false beliefs and self deception methods just to hide the truth.

If you are serious about breaking any bad habit then you must be brave enough to bring the real reasons to the surface.

Do you lack courage to face life?

It’s time to answer this question honestly and it’s time to acknowledge your fears instead of running from them or denying their existence.

Most bad habits stem from your desire to escape life problems and run from responsibilities.

What a shame, this habit you have been doing for six years or even ten years has only existed because you are not brave enough.