Stuck on Repeat
By Grant Gaines
I’ve never personally been to the Grand Canyon but I hear it’s a sight you have to see to believe. The Canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, about 1.5 miles deep, and is one of the 7 Wonders of the World1.
I can only imagine the breath-taking sight of standing on edge of the vast canyon and seeing the miles and miles of jaw dropping scenery. But what fascinates me the most about the Grand Canyon is the fact that all of those miles upon miles of scenery were formed by a simple little river of water. No tool, explosives, or engineers were required to carve out this massive indention in the ground, all that was needed was some water from the Colorado River.
Of course, that canyon was not formed overnight but rather over a long period of time as that same stream of water continually ran along the same path of land creating a deeper and deeper canyon until the Grand Canyon as we know it was formed.
Neurologists say that a similar phenomenon occurs within all of our brains. Every time we repeat a thought or action, our brains send our bodies the same instructions along the same wavelength in order to complete the desired task. As we continually repeat that same thought or action, the path that message has to travel becomes shorter and easier until the point where our brain becomes somewhat like the Grand Canyon. This is what we would call “muscle memory” or a “habit.”
This idea led researches at Duke University to do an interesting study which revealed that 40% of our daily thoughts and actions are made up of unconscious habits. That means 40% of everything you do every single day is done with your mind in cruise control as the body does what your brain has trained it to do. Driving home after work, brushing your teeth, and feeding the dog likely all fall into this category as you could probably complete all of these tasks with your eyes closed because you have done all of these so often.
Think about that for a moment, that means that over the course of your seven day week you could sleep walk Monday-Wednesday (roughly 40% of a seven day week) without giving one single conscious thought to your actions and everything would be done exactly how it would have been if you were 100% focused and alert. As soon as you form a habit, it’s like your body gets stuck on repeat and just keeps on repeating those same actions over and over and over again.
Some of the habits we develop over our lifetimes are good, progressive, life-giving habits. But as I’m sure you are probably already aware of, a lot of the habits we continually practice can be pretty detrimental to our health-both physically and spiritually. That’s pretty scary when you consider that 40% of your life could potentially be taken up by bad habits. That puts you in a pretty deep hole with the remaining 60% of your day, wouldn’t you agree?
This is what happened to Saul as he became the first king of the Israel. 1 Samuel 13:1 (NIV) records that, “Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty years.” When this statement is taken at face value, we quickly can move onto the next verse. However, when we consider that the 40 years of Saul’s time on the throne were greatly impacted by the habits that he developed during the first 29 years of his life before taking the crown, we have an interesting takeaway.
While we often blame the then 30 year old Saul for his shortcomings during his time as king-his fear, his faithlessness, and his jealousy-we should instead look back and dissect the destructive habits that 10, 15, and 20 year old Saul formed because it was during this time of his life that Saul became the “Saul” we are so accustom to hearing about.
The same could be said about Moses who at 80 years old became Israel’s leader. It wasn’t like Moses was called by God from the burning bush at the age of 80 and then figured out how to lead a group of exiles through the desert. God had been training Moses for 40 years to navigate through the rough terrain of the desert while caring for a helpless flock of sheep which allowed him to develop the essential habits that he would need to become Israel’s shepherd through that same desert.
The same could be said about you-what you do today will become who you are tomorrow.
How you respond today when a small thing goes bad at work will be how you respond when something bad happens at home tomorrow. How you treat the waiter at the restaurant today will be how you treat your friends tomorrow. The time you spend with the Lord today will determine how spiritually fruitful you will be tomorrow.
Our actions today have a giant impact on our lives in the future. That is why it is so important to be disciplined in every area of life-to eat healthy, to exercise, to say your prayers, to spend time studying the Bible, and to cultivate a thankful and joyful heart. Because just as water continually running across the same plot of land can eventually form a canyon 277 miles long, our repeated actions and thoughts will form unchangeable habits.
What habits do you need to form or get rid of today?
1 http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/earth/grandcanyon.html
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
