Habits. It is a subject outside of the scope of this site, and yet it is key to the whole premise of the #endmyopia Method. This is not an exercise program – this is a program designed to help you identify habits destructive to your eyesight, and introduce habits to replace those negative habits, with productive ones.
You might want to explore the psychology of habit forming outside of this site, if you have never actively done so. In the meantime, here is a quick and basic primer:
A habit is something you are inclined to do, at a set rate, without external prompting.
Countless things in our daily life may be habits. Grabbing the paper for breakfast, a cigarette with a beer, tuning into the news station for the drive home, brushing teeth after dinner, putting your car keys in your right front pocket. All the things that happen without conscious effort or reminders, the ‘autopilot’ of daily life. This is a very powerful tool, if you leverage it for vision improvement.
A habit forms from most any activity that you do, repeatedly, consistently, over a period of time.
Some research suggests a number of around 30 days, a month, of every day repetition, may be enough to create a habit. And therein lies what I repeat frequently, and what for many is the foundation of ongoing success with improving eyesight: Taking these simple concepts of strain reduction, prescription management, active focus, and making conscious, consistent efforts to turn the tasks into habits.
This is why the Vision Improvement Course has a timer, releasing new installments at set intervals.
It is to give you time to think of a good way to put the suggestion into your daily routine. If you set yourself a good distance from the screen, and push focus, every day for half an hour, set yourself reminders, do it every day for 30 days – it will likely become one of those autopilot tasks. And if you do that, no matter what else, you are giving yourself positive stimulus, every day.
No exercise program can match the power of a habit-based program. And the simpler, the less intrusive, the less artificial the habit is, naturally fitting into your workflow, the stronger it’s ongoing effect will be.
Initially, you are actively working on this. Learning about methods. You do get what I spent years refining, with countless clients, in a matter of a month or two (quite nice as efficiency goes). You do end up making an effort to get to active focus, and making yourself remember to wear differential prescriptions for close-up, and staying near that blur horizon. But after a month or two, it’s just another habit. Even if you get ‘distracted’ by life in general, you still do these things – and your vision continues to improve.
So, while you consider all of the contents of the blog, forum, the Vision Improvement course – realize that this is very much a ‘front loading’ type of commitment. Get to understand the basic premises, and find ways to get them into your daily flow. Do it in the beginning (otherwise the habit will be to ignore my advice!). Do it knowing that you are setting up, and with 10% of the effort you are putting in now, you will continue to build results.
Enjoy!
