Habits and the brain.

It's been a long few days at work and not all has gone to plan. I hadn't really got enough done prior to the plasterer arriving. So two long days trying to catch up and then two long days when he did. We didn't get everything done and he's busy on other work now. So I'm a bit stuck and it's my fault. there's no point in mulling over this (something I would of done in the past) I just have to figure a way round it.
   However before I do this, I thought I'd get this down on the blog and how I'm feeling and thinking. I've been reading about habits from two books I picked up cheaply on my kindle. The first, deals with how to. The second looks at why. The second is far more interesting. The habit department, good and bad (basil ganglia). has it's office at the back of the brain. It isn't the most exiting department at Brain HQ they're not there to come up with new ideas or deal with anything half way interesting. Its cheap to maintain, so staffed by dull little cells who demand little and work 24/7. They just push the ON button for the required habit,  Making a coffee, taking a shower, driving and eating too much cake. You get the picture. Then there's the prefrontal cortex. The decision department. All the interesting stuff goes on here. Long term planning, ambition and what could be. It has it's offices in the front of the brain and is full of smart power hungry cells. Now when things go wrong budgets don't always allow for the decision department to call all those clever cells in. So the habit department comes to the rescue and pushes a button.
   Now you know why, when things don't always go right and you're thinking "Why do I always do that," you do that! Your habits and I'm focusing on the bad ones, are there to comfort and protect you in the short term when things don't go well. They are not designed to help you move on. just survive the moment. I don't know about you but I don't feel so bad about my bad habits now. OK I'd like to rid myself of a few of them but maybe some can just be modified. Take for instance my opening paragraph. My work habit is to start slow, not always deliberately and then end up in a panic working long hours to catch up. What if I just ran that habit backwards?
   I'm off to have a think about my other habits, I may be gone a long lonnnnng time.

Onwards and upwards. In search of fulfillment :-)))