No.0102：habituation - like a machine
May 30,2022
If you make it a habit to do every day, you can continue it without difficulty. 'It's a hassle, can I skip it today?' There is no such hesitation at all. Like a series of ceremonies: go to the toilet when you wake up, wash your face, have breakfast and go to work. Every day, I spend an hour after waking up to prepare for TOEIC through online learning materials and 40 minutes in the evening for online English conversation in order to communicate with people overseas through English. When I first started, I had not established a habit (pattern), and there were evil whispers that I should skip it! But now, as we need unconscious breathing to stay alive, it has become so natural that we are able to continue without any major brakes.
On the other hand, there are harmful effects of habituation. Thinking becomes rigid. We become unable to adapt to change. We stop thinking. Like a narrow-minded disappointment due to brainwashing by a dubious religion.
- Is this really the right thing to do, or is there a more effective way to continue the current lackluster situation?
- Someone might get annoyed, but perhaps starting a new one would be more positive for many people?
- We have been in the doldrums for a long time, losing customers to rival products, so can we really afford to stay in that state?
In order to increase the probability of new encounters without falling into such traps, in other words, to update yourself, it seems that you should dare to put yourself in a different place from usual. You may try to interact with people you have never met before, read books of a genre you have never read before, visit places you have never been to before, take up a hobby you have always wanted to try but have never been able to, You may observe the scenery of the city on your way to work, which you have been looking at casually until now, and try to predict the cause of the change. Such "thinking" may lead to the creation of a tomorrow that is different from yesterday.
The other day, a program with the above message was broadcast on NHK. This is the story of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, in which the people of Czechoslovakia won their freedom by defeating oppression from the Soviet Union (communism) without shedding blood by the power of the people, inspired by the music of a rock group called Velvet Underground, which advocated freedom of expression and a challenge to the establishment. Rock music breaks up the boring routine, it's too cool.
It is important to strike a balance between habituation and change. Monotonous repetition for the sake of efficiency and safety is a dead end. A new breath of fresh air is essential. The environment surrounding our daily lives is changing, and if we don't adapt to it, we could be headed for a lazy decline. Six guards and four attacks. It is a slogan that expresses the balance of power for existing and new customers at the company I joined as a new graduate. At the time, I thought it was just like that, but now it sounds like a fresh word that shows the golden ratio of what not to change and what to change.