Awareness

The Power of Awareness lies largely in it starting (or restarting) the process of change toward growth that sticks. After becoming aware of the potential for change in any area (phone use, for example), you can choose to do nothing, use only willpower to try and change, or start a small-step process toward lasting change.

While awareness sometimes confirms that what you’re already doing is a good option, it also usually indicates that at least a small tweak is needed. Ignoring awareness usually perpetuates a cycle (or rut) that will continue as an unnecessary struggle.

Using willpower to change, in my experience, does not produce change that sticks. Not by itself, anyway. For example, willpower made an initial small reduction in phone pick-ups. But I’d been there before and knew it was not yet sticky change. It was a good start, but I needed more.

Assessment

That “more” involves assessing and then modifying my systems and habits. The consistency they bring leads me to sticky growth.

With my cell phone pick-ups, this means consolidating activities like checking off notifications only when I also answer a text. Or I simply wait until I have at least three reasons to pick up my phone (e.g., check off items on my To Do list, find an answer to a curiosity question, and look at step count). I’m also using my computer more for To Do checks since I tend to be more productive and get distracted less when using it. I also set my phone (with the sound on to hear a text or phone call) on the other side of the room, and end up picking it up a lot less as a result (this is especially helpful in reducing the pick-ups that happen without realizing I’m doing it).

Only when I adapt my systems to tweak a habit or routine do I obtain growth that sticks. This extends well beyond my cell phone use, of course, but my realization of how much I used to pick it up along with my reasons for doing so revealed that this largely passive habit was damming up progress in many other areas. Reading and deep work, for example, had decreased. I’d also been experiencing a lot more back and neck tension because of poor phone posture.

Depth

In Comfortably Uncomfortable, I considered my thinking and learning and realized I needed to “build my thinking muscles back up.” Nature plays a big part in this as does reading and playing games with others (in person, not virtually). Awareness and assessment of my use of technology are helping me reclaim that ability to think for myself, learn new things, and even improve my memory.

Awareness of how much I picked up my cell phone started the process of reclaiming focus and attention in other areas by assessing where I was (my comfort zones) and where I wanted to be (areas of potential growth). Now, each next step away from passivity is moving me toward a deeper life.

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Thank you for your encouragement and support!