Better Than Before: Mastering The Habits Of Our Everyday Lives - Plot & Excerpts
—Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography It’s human nature: we seek loopholes. Even when we’re deeply committed to a good habit, even when we enjoy that habit, we’re often seeking possible justifications to excuse ourselves from it … just this once. With a little ingenuity, there’s a loophole for every occasion. A loophole is an argument for why we should be excused from following a good habit. We aren’t mindfully planning the exception in advance, or acknowledging that we’re making an exception; we’re finding a loophole—usually on the spur of the moment—that lets us off the hook. Loopholes often flit through our minds, almost below the level of consciousness. If we recognize them, we can judge them and stop kidding ourselves. It’s when we deceive ourselves that our bad habits tyrannize us most. Of the Four Tendencies, Obligers struggle most often against the temptations of loopholes. Rebels don’t makes excuses to justify doing what they want; Upholders and Questioners feel a greater pressure from their own inner expectations to resist loopholes.
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