NO ONE EVER PICKED UP A DRINK THINKING “I’M GOING TO GET ADDICTED TO THIS.”   We don’t always make our decisions about our habits consciously. The ones that end up not serving us are, indeed, the most unlikely to been stepped into knowingly.   Maybe you took a drink to steel your nerves for a first date, love? Or found that you were ‘lucky’ when you won a bet? Perhaps you were feeling lonely in your relationship, and porn filled the intimacy gap?   The problem is that EVERY HABIT is on a SEESAW. It starts out serving you - you’re less shy; you feel lucky; you don’t feel so lonely, etc.   Gradually you move towards the seesaw’s pivot point, and that’s where the trouble starts. After the pivot, comes the ‘downhill’.  The habit has become UNSERVING.   The drinks mean you’re at work with a hangover. The bets mean you’re scared to look at your bank account. The porn means you feel constant shame.   YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN.   People say BS like “Oh alcohol is always a slippery slope - (s)he must’ve known that.”    Why MUST you have known that, love? Especially for yourself…    You see, our habits can be MANIPULATIVE - they make us believe that we’ll be in the vast majority of the world… That vast majority that don’t let drinking, gambling, porn become unserving to them.   NEVER BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR THE 1ST OR 101ST TIME YOU PICKED UP. YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE PAST.     But you CAN change the future.    In today’s pod, I’m talking all sorts of habits - not just addiction.    I believe in you, love.