The cost of change is your old self

Written by Naja Shafiq

The reason it is so hard to pick up a healthy habit or start doing something new in your life.

We know how much good it’ll bring good to our life but still, why are we lowkey so against it so much.

It is because it’s not simply just a change of action.

It is actually a change in identity. You are not just changing what you do. You are changing who you are.

Action and identity. What you do make you the person you are. And who you are make you do what you do.

You are on an uphill battle against yourself. You are fighting against a strong opposing pose which is your own self-beliefs.

So how do you solve this? How can we change when every single fibre in our body is fighting against it?

It’s sort of like the chicken and egg argument.

Does your brain control your body or your body control your brain. Which comes first? Does your action control your identity, or your identity control your action?

I think it goes both ways. It’s like a feedback loop cycle which reinforce the longer time passes.

To change your life, you need to break the cycle. You need to decide that change needs to happen and you stop the cycle and start a new one.

You start to be the new person you want to be. Imagine an ideal version of yourself and think, “what would he do in this situation?”, “should I be doing this if I am him?”.

Be self-aware of yourself and take control of your actions.

You will stumble every now and then, which is no suprise. It’s not easy to break a cycle that has been reinforced for a lot of years before.

It will take time. Change takes time. But if you keep at it, you’ll get there eventually.

If you feel like some part of your life need to change, just know that it’s not just about changing how you do things, it’s also about changing who you are.

Published on 29 Jul 2024