Breaking Free
Why Your New Year’s Resolution and Habit-changes Failed (And How to Fix It)
It wasn’t a lack of strength; it was a lack of strategy.
Many believe that slipping up on New Year’s resolutions means a lack of personal strength or Willpower. However, science shows that willpower is a limited resource that depletes throughout the day.
When we rely on willpower alone, it’s like using an AA battery to power your eCar from coast to coast. It’s going to fail.
It’s not a personal failure—it’s just your energy running low.
Science has shown that 40-45% of the actions people perform each day aren’t actual conscious decisions, but habits. Habits are our learned process of coping with external and internal environmental conditions. They are repeated, automated, and stored in our subconscious, ready to act when the right triggers appear.
The “Spilled Milk” Effect For example, imagine your inner critic scolded you when you were a toddler for spilling your milk, making you feel inadequate. Later in life, you’re having drinks with friends and you move abruptly, knocking over a glass. Your stored habit reacts in the same way—triggering shame or defensiveness—to protect your ego.
Where did that reaction come from?
Cognitive neuroscientists estimate that up to 95% of brain activity is subconscious. In other words, our thinking is the result of our accumulative habits. Our habits rule our lives.
We can easily feel like we’re caught in a “Habit Prison.”
The Way Out The good news is: We can change. The unfortunate news is: If we rely on willpower alone, the change process will fail.
Willpower, like a battery, drains. It is a limited source of energy, insufficient for making a change last. Equally, if we focus only on changing the behavior itself, it won’t stick.
Why? If we identify as a smoker trying to quit, the habit may disappear for a while. But because we still identify as a smoker, we can anticipate the inevitable slide back into old ways.
Essentially, we need to make an Identity Shift. We must shift to an identity that resonates with our true self—a higher spiritual being in a human body—by engaging a habit-changing system that actually works.
By doing so, we can make lasting change not just possible, but easier—and maybe even a little fun.
The “Breaking Free” system helps you build lasting habits without constant self-control. It helps you rewire your habits at a deeper level—our Ideal-Self Vision—so the urge to rely on willpower doesn’t even show up.
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