原文: 10 Unbeatable Tips for Overcoming Micro-Addictions

The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. - Samuel Johnson

Article by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead.

What are micro-addictions? They are those annoying little habits that prevent you from living the life you truly want. They are small enough to go unchecked, but bothersome enough to get in the way of you living your fullest potential.

They are…

• The inability to stop checking your email 10 times a day, when you could be making progress toward building your own business.
• The frustrating habit of seeking approval from other people when you know that you should trust your own instincts.
• The deceptive habit of using television as convenient entertainment, rather than participating in life.
• The addiction to having everything figured out in advance. Instead of going for what you want, you commit to thinking about it a little longer; possibly for the rest of your life.

These are the unwanted minutiae in our lives. A couple of these annoying little habits are not enough to make much of a difference. One or two wandering bits of algae in the sea doesn’t make too much of an impact. It’s when this undesirable flotsam becomes a cloud that our lives are compromised.

So how can we battle these little micro-addictions, these tiny thorns in the side of our personal development?

While by no means am I perfect, these are a few things that have helped me.

1. Do your best. Realize that your best will be different depending on the time of the day, and how much energy you have. Whatever you’re doing, simply do your best. This will help you overcome playing the victim with yourself and seeking back into self pity. Self pity fuels the cycle of repeating what you’ve always done. If you stay in the realm of self pity, your feeling sorry for yourself will make you feel like you’re helpless to change your situation. Always do your best and avoid playing the victim.
2. Chip away. The hardest part about changing habits is that they’re a pattern. We’re comfortable doing what we have always been doing. Even though we aren’t necessarily happy with what we’re doing, it’s more comfortable following the same pattern than breaking it. Much of this is because we get intimidated trying to make drastic changes. Overhauling your life will never be accomplished in a single day, so just take it easy. Take it one day, or hour, at a time if you need. Commit to changing your habit for just today.
3. Build momentum. A lot of people will tell you to thing big, act small. Thinking about the big picture is important, but if we want to building momentum, we need to think small and act big. By thinking small, we’re able to mentally digest the changes we want to make. By thinking small and acting big, we can commit for a short period of time and put all our energy into that commitment. Then we can build momentum on mini-milestones.
4. Change your environment. Typically, the easiest way to create a new habit is to change our environment to reinforce it. If you want to start practicing yoga daily, set your yoga mat out every night, so you see it when you first wake up. Subscribe to yoga related blogs; print yoga photos and put them up around your room; get a screensaver of your favorite yoga poses, etc. The more triggers we have in our environment that enforce our habit, the less work your mind has to do to make you believe it’s going to be a habit.
5. One thing at a time. This isn’t something new that you’ve never read on Zen Habits. But so many people get gung-ho about a total life makeover, they try to do everything at once. They get excited; they want to change their diet, exercise habits, social life, career, values, etc. They put all their energy in as many directions as possible. Then what happens? It fizzles. It’s like a chef getting excited about the possibility of a hundred different flavors, so she adds them all. The end result turns into an incomprehensible mess. Focus on mastering one thing at a time. You’ll thank yourself later.
6. Be persistent. Persistence is the enemy of the rut. The only thing between where you are now and where you want to be is really persistence. If you can develop the ability to be highly persistent, you’ll succeed where others give up. It’s in failing many times and getting back on your feet that you make progress.
7. Reject perfection. We have a tendency to put things off endlessly, because we’re afraid of imperfections. This is pretty silly. If your dream is to become a master pianist, wouldn’t you have rather tried and failed than not tried at all?
8. Do some value work. Staying aligned with my values is something that’s helped me stay motivated toward breaking micro-addictions. If you don’t know what your values are, simply ask yourself what’s most important to you. Take a moment to think about it, but don’t think to hard. Go with your gut and whatever comes to mind first. My top values are authenticity, clarity, and balance. When I’m doing things that aren’t aligned with my values, I’m unhappy. When I’m closely aligned with my values, though, I feel fulfilled. If you can keep your values in mind at all times, it makes making the right decision much easier.
9. Be content. We often get so caught up with improving our lives and achieving our goals that we forget to be content. The truth is, if we don’t take the time to appreciate things the way they are now, we’ll most likely resent personal development. By having gratitude and contentment, you’ll reinforce your will to grow. It’s a lot more motivating when you know that you will actually appreciate the achievements you have made, rather than only focusing on your shortcomings.
10. Stop thinking. How much time do you spend thinking about what you really want to do? How much of your life do you spend daydreaming about the life you want to lead, rather than just living it? It’s amazing how much fear of failure and fear of the unknown can hold us back. But wouldn’t it make more sense to spend all that energy taking physical steps toward your goals, rather than imaginary ones? I think we could all do with a little less thinking and a little more doing.

I think the most important part of attempting to break these little micro-addictions is that we keep in mind where they are coming from in the first place. Usually we’re preoccupying ourselves with these dead-end pursuits because we’re trying to avoid something. We fear if we really focused on doing what we want, we might actually achieve it. In the end, we fear our own awesome power. That’s insanity.

Stop selling yourself short. Embrace your greatness.

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. - William Feather

This article was written by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead of the Illuminated Mind blog. Click here to subscribe to his blog.

—
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

译文: 10个无与伦比的窍门帮你克服微瘾

 一系列的小习惯通常在人们发觉它们难以克服时才被发觉.-塞缪尔约翰逊

文章摘自禅宗习性撰稿者乔纳森米德

什么是微隐？它们就是那些令人烦躁的小习惯，并阻止你过着你真正想要的生活。它们太小了以致未受制止，但却影响到你充分过好你的生活。

它们是...

• 在你原本可以在你所从事的事情上取得进展的时候,你却不能制止自己一天打开你邮箱10次.
• 在你知道你应该相信自己的直觉时,你总是有寻求得到别人的认可的令人沮丧的习惯.
• 欺骗性的习惯让你把电视当成一种便捷的娱乐方式而没有切身到生活活动中去.
• 总是习惯性事先想把事情弄清楚.也没有去追求你真正需要的,而是在自我承诺说要再想一会,可能是有生之年吧.

在我们生活中有很多不必要的细节.一些令人烦躁的小毛病不足以造成很大的影响.一两个漂流的藻类对大海没造成什么大的影响.只是当这些不良的细节酿成大错时我们的生活就受到损害.

所以我们应该怎样去克服这些微瘾,这些在我们个人发展道路上的荆棘?

虽然我不是完美的,但以下的这些事都帮助过我.

1. 尽你所能. 意识到你的最佳状态会根据你每天不同的时间段和你所拥有精力的多少而改变.不管你做什么,只管尽你最大能力.这会帮你克服自我玩弄和自我遗憾.自我遗憾总会让你反复想起你所做的事.如果你停留在自我遗憾的世界里,你对自己的责怪会让你感到你无法改变你的现状.所以一定要尽你所能和避免成为不尽力的牺牲品.
2. 打破模式. 改变不良习惯最难的部分是它们形成一种模式.对于我们一贯做的事情我们感到很安逸.即使我们不一定为我们所做的事而开心,但是顺从一种模式比打破它显得更容易.大部分原因是因为我们感到被迫去做出剧变.你不可能在一天之内完全掌控你的生活,所以要慢慢来.如果你需要,在一天,一个小时做出一点改变.每一个今天,你要遵循承诺改变你的习惯.
3. 形成冲力. 很多人会告诉你多想像,少行动.想出大的整体事态是很重要的,但是我们要想形成一种冲力,我们需要少想像和多行动.通过少想像，我们可以从内心去消化我们所做出的改变.通过少想像,多行动,我们可以在短时间内承诺自己,并把我们所有的精力放在兑现那个诺言. 从而我们可以在小的里程碑上形成一股冲力.
4. 改变你的环境. 很典型的,养成一种新的习惯最简单的方法就是改变我们周围环境去加强它.如果你想每天练瑜伽,那每天晚上就把瑜伽垫摆好,好让你每天早起时见到它.订阅有关瑜伽的博客;打印瑜伽的照片并挂在你的房间内;选择你最喜欢的瑜伽姿势作为屏幕保护程序,等.我们的环境里存在越多有助我们养成习惯的推动力,你脑子里让自己相信它将变成一种新的习惯就越少.
5. 专注一件事. 这并不是你在禅宗习惯上从未阅读到的新的建议.但是许多人急于将整个人生装饰,他们想立刻去做好一切.他们变得兴奋;他们要改变他们的饮食,健身习惯,社交生活,事业,价值观,等.他们试着将自己的精力分散在尽可能多的方向.接着会怎样呢?失败了.正如一个厨师对做出上百种口味菜肴的可能性的急切,所以他每种配料都放.结果这菜肴变成难以形容的杂乱.每一次集中精力去把一件事情做好,随后你会受益匪浅并谢谢你自己.
6. 坚持不懈. 坚持是浮躁的敌人.坚持是你现在的起点和你想达到终点的桥梁.如果你养成一种坚持不懈的能力,那么在别人放弃的时候你就会取得成功.在失败之后继续前进就是你所取得的进步.
7. 拒绝完美. 我们有一种不断丢弃所有事情的倾向,因为我们害怕不完美.这真的很可笑.如果你梦想成为一名优秀的钢琴师,以其不去尝试而直接放弃,难道你不想去试一试后才知道失败吗?
8. 做些有价值的事情. 保持符合我的价值观给予我动力去克服微瘾.如果你不知道你的价值所在,那你就扪心自问什么对你最重要.花一点时间去想一想,但是不要过于复杂化.顺从你的勇气和出现在你脑海里的第一感觉.我最高价值观是真实性,明确性,平衡性.当我做那些违背我价值观的时候,我很不开心.然而当我顺应我的价值观时,我感到很充实.如果你能一直铭记你的价值观,你便更容易去做出正确的决定.
9. 要知足. 我们常常赶着要提高生活和实现愿望,但却忘了感到满足.事实上如果我们没有花时间去体会事情所处的方式，我们很可能会厌恶我们个人的发展.通过感激和满足,你将会促使你意愿的增长.当你知道你会赞赏你所取得的成就,而不是致力于你的缺点时,你会感到动力倍增.
10. 停止空想. 你花多少时间去想你真正想做什么?你虚度多少光阴去做白日梦而没有真正过你要的生活?你会很惊奇的发现对失败的畏惧和对未知的恐慌会阻碍你前进.难道你拿想象的时间去采取实际行动实现你的目标不是更有意义吗?我认为我们应该少些空想,多干实事.

我觉得克服这些微瘾最重要的就是要铭记它们是从哪里来的.我们通常为些以失败而告终的追求感到担忧,因为我们总是试着去避免它.我们担心如果我们真正去专心做我们想做的事,也许我们可能会成功.最终,我们却害怕我们可怕的力量.那真是太愚蠢了.

停止彰显自己的缺点.拥抱你的伟大之处.

 成功是当别人放弃的时候,你仍然坚持不懈.-威廉费特

这篇文章摘自禅宗习性的撰稿者乔纳森米德的博客启蒙的心智.点击这里去查阅他的博客.

—
如果你喜欢这篇文章，请在del.icio.us,与朋友友共享或者向朋友推荐.我会感激不尽:)