Inertia

They say it takes two weeks to break a habit. They also say it takes two weeks to make a habit. Why is that? Why is it the start and end of said habit are so damn tough, yet keeping it rolling is pretty simple?

One tiny word. Inertia. Defined as "the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest." Basically, what's moving wants to stay moving and what's not moving wants to stay put. Overcoming that is the tricky part. Think back to when you were learning to drive standard (or to the one time you tried, made the car cry and gave up). Getting the car to start rolling in first was the hard part - once she was moving, getting her into second was pretty easy.

Habits work the same way. The first day is great - get the key in the ignition and get her started. The next few days might be great, they might not be. The second week - well, this is where the trouble starts. Gears start grinding, excuses are coming in at a mile a minute, and the urge to quit often overrides the motivation to keep pushing forward. This is often the make-it or break-it point in any given program - be it habit forming or habit breaking. This is where inertia kicks in - you have to be stronger than the object (or habit) you're trying to move. If you're not stronger, you at least have to be more determined than it, since inertia is simply the resistance to change. It's habit-stubbornness essentially. And unlike objects, habits are all in our head. They're patterns, samskara (the subconscious impression left behind by each act of volition) if you will, that have developed over time from nothing more than repetition.

So how do you overcome inertia? It takes a lot of conscious effort to make or break a habit. Nothing more. When I quit smoking years ago, it was a simple case of making that decision every time - to smoke or not to smoke. When we did the 30-day yoga challenge, it was the same decision every morning - to get on the mat or wimp out. Every time I made a decision that supported my goals, I was that much closer to changing my samskara.

Read that last paragraph again. The key is conscious effort - every time you do something, you have a choice. You have the power and ability to choose. Not surprisingly, this is what we teach in yoga. To create a space where you feel you have the space, time, and opportunity to make a choice rather than to merely react to the situation at hand. Your habit will keep moving (or not moving) until you (and only you) make the decision, every time, to change it.