40% ACTION IS BY HABIT

 As Will Durant writes in The Story of Philosophy (a quote often misattributed to Aristotle): “We are what we repeatedly do.”

Today, we know the true extent of those words. According to research, up to 40% of our daily actions are powered by habits–the unconscious actions and routines we’ve developed over time.


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As Maria Popova, founder of Brain Pickings writes, though very different in practice, routine and ritual seem to be two sides of the same coin:

While routine aims to make the chaos of everyday life more containable and controllable, ritual aims to imbue the mundane with an element of the magical. The structure of routine comforts us, and the specialness of ritual vitalizes us.

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ROUTINES POWER YOUR DAY, BUT RITUALS HELP YOU GET THROUGH THEM

Days have a funny way of slipping past without us even realizing it. And while routines help us feel in control of our time, rituals make sure we stick to our plans. Sometimes it’s the simplest actions that help us get through the day and stay motivated.