Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 153 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

4 D's That Will Destroy Bad Habits

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 153 of our Trek. Yesterday we explored the 9 principles for a lasting legacy and today we will hike the 4 trails to destroy bad habits. If you miss any days of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. This episode is releasing on Saturday as Paula and I are heading to Ft. Lauderdale in preparation for a 7 day podcasting cruise on Sunday. The week that we are out at sea I will have a series of podcasts covering short wisdom stories.

Since we have 4 short trails to trek today, let’s get started right away by breaking camp and heading onto the trail. The trails today are very difficult, just like breaking bad habits is very difficult in our lives. When we start habits that are not good for us, we do not realize at the time or understand the inherent difficulty in changing old and persistent habits. But that does not mean that it is impossible.

The only way that habits begin to change is when we begin to change our perceptions. Most people are not successful in changing bad habits or addictions quickly. For most of us change comes as an evolutionary process of almost imperceptible changes. We just keep nudging ourselves in the right direction by forming one or two better habits. Changing habits permanently requires 4 distinct but interlocking steps. It is like the interlocking Lego blocks that connect to each other to build the steps to success. You must connect them together and in the proper order.

The Four D’s to Break Bad Habits

Emotions are the most powerful forces inside us. Under the power of emotions, human beings can perform the most heroic (as well as barbaric) acts. To a great degree, civilization itself can be defined as the intelligent channeling of human emotion. Emotions are fuel and the mind is the pilot, which together propel the ship of civilized progress.

There are four basic emotions or building blocks that can trigger the most incredible activity. The day that you channel these emotions to fuel your desire is the day you’ll turn your life around and overcome bad habits that are destroying you.

1. Disgust with Yourself

One does not usually equate the word “disgust” with positive action. And yet, properly channeled, disgust can change a person’s life. The person who feels disgusted has reached a point of no return. He or she is ready to throw down the gauntlet at life and say, “I’ve had it!”

Yes, productive feelings of disgust come when you say, “Enough is enough.”

You have had it with mediocrity. You have had it with those awful sick feelings of fear, pain and humiliation. You decide you are not going to live like this anymore. Call it what you will. It may be the “I’ve had it” day, the “never again” day, the “enough is enough” day…Whatever you call it, it’s powerful! There is nothing so life-changing as gut-wrenching disgust!

2. Decision Time – You Must Choose

Most of us need to be pushed to the wall to make decisions. Once you reach this point, you have to deal with the conflicting emotions that come with making them. We have reached a fork in the trail. Now this fork can be a two-prong, three-prong or even a four-prong fork. No wonder that decision-making can create knots in stomachs, keep you awake in the middle of the night, or make you break out in a cold sweat.

Making life-changing decisions can be likened to internal civil war. Conflicting armies of emotions,