Bad habits are the ‘Minkholes’ of our lives

Minkholes Defined

Years ago I worked with some of my colleagues on the concept of ‘Minkholes’.  To define Minkholes, they are fur lined rat holes. They feel really good while you’re sinking into them but you know they’re really bad for you.

When they’re no longer working and continue to not work, you have to replace them. What am I talking about? Old habits. Why in the world would you want to hang onto something that doesn’t work for you when you have a choice?  Ahh the ultimate of Minkholes… holding onto habits that not only don’t serve you but pull you back.

For most it’s a comfort zone issue. Once we replace the habits that are no longer self-serving with those that fit a future of our own design, we will no longer live our lives from a position of history or status quo.

Old habits are hard to change (I don’t much like the ‘break’ term).  The Minkhole here is there’s something very enticing about holding onto history.  Human nature is as such we tend to forget about all the bad stuff and only hold onto the good parts.  It’s called selective memory.  As my friend and colleague John Satta asks “Of all the ideas here, consider this: How much good could you accomplish just by stopping doing something bad?”

So How Can We Dig Ourselves Out?

Awareness.  Mindfulness.  It’s about being aware of the consequences of habits and if they serve you or not.  It’s being aware not only of your conscious thoughts but of your biases and how you label things in your life.  If the label is good or bad, you are filtering out all the possible good through one bad experience.  Let go of the label and you’ll be open to whatever comes your way, choosing to use it, set I aside or learn from it in some way.

We often operate from a position of automatic pilot.  As past experiences color our present, we place what’s unfolding into one category or another ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘like’, dislike’ etc rather than something new in its own right and own time to experience and grow from.

Years ago when I was doing a workshop for Health Canada, at our lunch break I asked the group to find something in the cafeteria they had either never had before, and didn’t ever buy because they thought they wouldn’t like it or, something they had had in the past that they seem to remember they didn’t like but can’t remember why.  I wanted them to experience it again for the first time and share what that experience felt like.  Most came back absolutely surprised that what they had thought they hated they really enjoyed.  Their taste buds had matured over time or something was prepared differently and they actually liked what they had thought they hated!  All in all it challenged their paradigms.

What if we did this with other things in our lives?

It’s time to dig out of some of our Minkholes.

Last but not least…

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So I’ll leave you with these questions to reflect on:

Are you so focused on what worked in the past that you’re not paying attention to what’s happening right now?  How many opportunities might you have missed along the way because of that? And how many times will you make the wrong decisions before you stop and take stock of and change how you make those decisions in the first place?

I’d love to hear your answers on that. 

With deepest respect,

Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com

ISSN 1913-6307