I am rereading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg for the sixth or seventh time; honestly I’ve lost count at this point.  If you have not read it I highly recommend as I believe it is the most important book ever written that puts habits in layman’s terms.  Most books on habit come across more psychological and medical that I simply cannot keep up.  Duhigg is not a psychologist, nor a doctor, but quite the contrary; he was a writer for the New York Times.  At any rate I recommend you read, but that’s not the point of this post.

My point is that I notice every year when the calendar switches from old year to new year, it takes me almost 2 weeks so stop writing the old year when signing dates and to go into auto mode in writing the new year.  It’s not as if I don’t know it’s 2018 versus 2017.   If anyone on the street stopped me and asked the year I would easily and quickly respond, “Oh, it’s 2018, why do you ask?”

My observation is how powerful habits are in our life.  Although I have the knowledge of the year being 2018, the power of my writing and typing habits is more powerful than said knowledge of knowing the year.  This happens to people when we move from an address we’ve lived at for many years.  It happens when we change zip codes.  I once answered the phone incorrectly at a job and identified myself as an employee of my former employer while standing in the building of my new employer.  Have you ever driven home, but for the life of you you cannot recall how in the world you got home?

The Power of Habit.