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Ximena Garcia

English 1302-201

Judith McCann

31 March 2022

The Ability to Change

A frequent misconception made by society is assuming that someone cannot change.

Being motivated with a purpose is all it takes to successfully eliminate poor habits. There are

plenty of individuals who believe the ability to change oneself is not possible. Yet one never

starts fully trying before they claim that their habits are impossible to remove. Nobody

comprehends that the ability to change someone’s customs is possible. They just give up before

reaching their goal and tend to blame the outside of their surroundings. But what people do not

understand is that there are multiple steps to achieve the modification they tend to desire. With

the aim of alternating someone’s poor habits, it is important to identify unhealthy habits or bear

in mind what character it is they do not like about themselves, and they must want, crave, and

desire to change. The ability to alter one’s habits is always attainable, but an individual must

never quit, even if they feel as if their goal is in the grasp of their hands, because everything can

be achieved if it is done the correct way. One needs to have a will and a motive that gives them a

cause to pursue a goal until it is achieved. Lastly, this process requires much patience.

Finding Their Habit

Having to identify a person's custom is the first step for someone to begin their journey.

Having to find a habit they do not like can sometimes be hard. Such as how maybe people are

not aware that some actions done constantly by people can do can either upset others or hurt

someone’s feelings others around them. What I agree with the author is to go around with others
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and become more of an observer to be able to detect what certain actions are being disfavored by

others (Cherry 1). Once they have in mind what it is they want to get rid of or change from their

personality to become better, they are ready to begin the process of eliminating their unwanted

habit.

Identifying the Reason Behind It

Once someone has focused on the habit that they desire to get rid of, the person must now

identify the reason behind why they act or make that habit. Finding the root of the problem is

particularly important because once they know, they can focus on eliminating the habit. To be

able to find the root behind someone’s habit, people must become very observant, and focus on

such things as what it is they either are about to think of, do, or act right before the person does

their habit (Raypole 1). If with that, the person still does not find the reason behind why they do

what they do. A different approach must be taken in order to find the underlying cause of the

cause behind their habit. A different type of attempt can be to focus on whether someone

receives an incentive after they do their habit. Instead of focusing on what someone before the

habit, focus on what they do after. They must ask themselves questions. Does it benefit

someone? Does it bring either satisfaction or pleasure to themselves? How is the person affected

by the habit once they did it? Is it good? An example of a habit that the author talks about is how

if someone's habit is to constantly wake up late, something that the person can do in order to find

the reason behind why they wake up late, is by observing their actions either before or after they

have woken up late. For example, they must investigate what it is they are doing before or after

their habit is done. Maybe they have been sleeping late, maybe they are distracted at night before

they go to sleep, or they cannot sleep well throughout the night because of a small reason such as

inconvertibility, noise, or constantly waking up (Raypole 1). Or people can also focus on their
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actions after they wake up. Once they wake up, are they pondering in a state of “between sleep”

where they are awake with their eyes close for too long, maybe they are constantly clicking the

snooze button every time their alarm goes off, or they constantly fall asleep after they turn off

their alarm (Raypole 1). All of those can be incentives to give someone the satisfaction of

obtaining more time to sleep (Raypole 1). Now that people are able to find the root behind their

habits, we must find a method to eliminate them.

Eliminating the Root

Once they have a focus on the reason behind what causes the habit, they can now begin the third

step, eliminating the root. This is one of the two major difficult steps, but one must not feel

intimidated by the challenge. By understanding what someone is doing wrong, they now have an

idea of what to avoid. One must apply a new daily routine to their everyday life (Raypole 1).

Now just because one has changed their routine, that does not mean that they are done. It will be

inevitable to face obstacles throughout the process; therefore, they must be prepared with a

backup plan. One must rethink a new tactic and explore different ways to eliminate their old

habits. For instance, hat old habit of waking up late

-Place examples in each paragraph

-identify the reason behind it

-accepting and identifying that they have a problematic habit

- identifying the reason behind why they do habit, and finding a resolution towards it
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- doing something about it, acting upon it, and maintaining

Works Cited

Cherry, Kendra. “How It Is Possible to Change Your Personality.” Verywell Mind, Verywell

Mind, 22 Feb. 2021, https://www.verywellmind.com/can-you-change-your-personality-

2795428.

Duhigg, Charles. “The Golden Rule of Habit Change.” Psych Central, 17 July 2012,

psychcentral.com/blog/the-golden-rule-of-habit-change#1. Accessed 4 Mar. 2022.

“How It Is Possible to Change Your Personality.” Verywell Mind, 2019,

www.verywellmind.com/can-you-change-your-personality-2795428. Accessed 4 Mar.

2022.

Jaffe, Adi. “Why Is It so Hard to Change Bad Habits?” Psychology Today, 26 Mar. 2019,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-addiction/201903/why-is-it-so-hard-

change-bad-habits. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.

Raypole, Crystal. “Can People Really Change?” Healthline, 31 July 2020,

www.healthline.com/health/do-people-change.

“How to Break a Habit (and Make It Stick).” Healthline, 28 Oct. 2019,

www.healthline.com/health/how-to-break-a-habit. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

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