What if a habit is not an addiction?
If a habit is not an addiction, then it’s not a habit. It’s just plain old will power. It’s discipline. It’s self-control.
A habit is the opposite. It’s something you do instinctively. Something you do effortlessly without much control. It may even be something that causes you some degree of pain when you don’t do it. Something that requires will power to stop doing, not to start doing.
For some reason, however, we only apply this thinking to bad habits. It’s common to acknowledge that bad habits sneak up on you without much effort. Think about it, who works hard everyday to create a bad habit?
Yet, when the discussion of habits is on building good habits we lose site of this. The reality is that “good” habits aren’t habits at all. If they were, there wouldn’t be so many people out there still trying to figure out how to create good habits.
It doesn’t matter if you do something for 21, 30, 60 90, or 365 days in a row. Unless you become literally addicted to the activity, you will still need will power, discipline and self-control to do it again the next time.