Autism, Habits, & Autonomicity
Have you ever been frustrated because something that so many people learn as toddlers seems impossible?
There are whole books out there on habit formation, how to build habits, how to replace a bad habit with a good one, etc. But the one thing all these experts assume, is that you’re able to develop autonomic behaviors. Habits are automatic actions, things people don’t think about doing, they just do them. Like when you wake up and have to pee, many people then proceed to brush their teeth before leaving the bathroom.
For those of us who struggle to develop autonomicity, we only brush our teeth if we actively think about brushing our teeth. And let’s be real: how many of us are thinking clearly during the first ten minutes after we wake up? Even the morning people who are chipper and happy as soon as they wake up often take a few minutes before their brain “turns on.”
One of the “rules of thumb” when it comes to habits is that if you can do the thing every day for 30 days, you will have developed the autonomicity to keep that habit. For me, I have to do the thing every day for over a year before the activation energy required to start the thing lowers. But I still have to actively think about the thing, I just have less resistance to it.
