Force of Habit: Excerpts Overview

Introduction:
Creating Possibility

"You will feel new."

"Nothing that has ever been can prevent something from being possible for you now."

"Conventional wisdom is what we collectively take to be reality, even though it is only our reality, not the reality. It is our definitions, descriptions, and limitations on what is true or possible."

"All beliefs are limiting, except one. That one is that you are limitless."

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Introduction:
Why Change is Hard

"If the mind perceives a threat then the body experiences a threat. Our brain is unlikely to know the difference. We believe what we perceive."

"We are hard wired to feel threatened by anything that might challenge us and force us to change our thinking and adjust to new realities, even to healthier new realities. We often shrink back from what is new simply because it's new."

"As far as the human mind and body are concerned, paying attention to fear favors survival. That is why fear, in its many forms, is impossible to ignore. What will our next priority be if we don't survive?"

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Part One:
The Nature of Habits:
Habits and the Subconscious Mind

"The subconscious is that aspect of Mind that takes care of everything that you do without having to consciously think about it."

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Part One:
The Nature of Habits:
The Upside and the Downside

"Our brain and mind pre-judge all of our new experiences based on our past experience with similar things. We're all prejudiced; by virtue of the way our subconscious mind works we're all guilty of profiling."

"It's a blessing because it means we do not have to reconfigure our data base every morning when we wake up."

"The tendency to generalize from one experience to a new one causes and reinforces every kind of habit."

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Part One:
The Nature of Habits:
Why Almost All Attempts to Change Habits Fail

"We are much more apt to accidentally cause an undesirable change in the subconscious mind than we are to cause a desirable change on purpose." ("About Force of Habit" David Kohlhagen website article.)

"A lot of bad habits came into being because the subconscious mind thought it was doing you a favor."

"Most attempts to change habits are aimed at alleviating the symptom of the habit, not at eliminating the root and cause of the habit. The symptom is only the outward manifestation of the habit. It is an indicator that there is a problem. It is the messenger, not the message."

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Part Four:
Trauma and its Effects

"The likelihood of a person having a certain specific psychological, emotional or physical reaction or effect following a traumatic experience increases with that person's belief that he will have that specific reaction or effect."

"A person's beliefs about trauma and its effects will have an impact on the actual effects trauma has in that person's life."

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Part Six:
Clearing Memories and other Impressions of Their Negative Effects:
Talking to Yourself for Fun and Profit

"When you are releasing the hold a particular habit has had in your life, to do it you need the assistance of the intelligence that put that habit where it is in the first place. Though your mind cannot be coerced, your subconscious can be convinced to do anything that is truly in your best interests."

"There's never been an ally that is any more willing to do your bidding than your subconscious mind is."

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Part Six:
Clearing Memories and other Impressions of Their Negative Effects:
Securing the Perimeter

"Anything you avoid-even a little bit-feels dangerous to the mind."

"There is only one kind of fear and your mind doesn't like it."

"The mind's most effective way of forcing you to fall back from perceived danger is to throw a distressing memory up into your awareness, one that often bears a striking resemblance to the present situation."

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Part Seven:
Meanings

"You established your philosophy of life in childhood."

"Owing to the powerful influence of our abundant habit history, much of the time we adults are still making major life decisions through the eyes of the child we used to be."

"All of the negative psychic effects that make up a traumatic experience are caused by distorted and inaccurate meanings that got stuck in the mind."

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Part Seven:
Live and Learn:
Making Choices

"The view backward (so-called "hind sight") looks clearer, but only because now we know how it turned out."

"We learn more from our ‘mistakes' than we do from our successes."

"Without trial and error, mistakes and learning experiences, there might be no point in our being here at all."

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Part Eight:
The Power of Words

"This chapter is designed to help you get the most out of your habit change adventures by showing you how to take advantage of the power of language in the words you use to accomplish it."

"Unintentional influences on our mind caused our bad habits; it is through intentional influences that we clear them. Both processes employ exactly the same principles."

"Talking without first carefully engaging the conscious mind in an educated way is a serious threat to our mental, emotional and physical health and well being."

"Through simple lack of awareness people talk more or less by accident, with little appreciation for the fact that they may be having an effect on someone."

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THINK RESPONSIBLY!