You are a creature of habit because it's the path of least resistance. Habits seem an easier, softer way of living, but like many prescription medications, there are negative side effects - some worse than the disease itself. Among the worst are the limitations they bring to your life. Habits - even good ones, bind you to a certain way of thinking, feeling, acting and reacting. If there's a better way - and there always is a better way, you let it pass. The path most traveled is easier to follow and less risky. This is how you miss many good opportunities. No pain, no gain; no risk no success.
Not being your real self has become a habit. You're in a rut and don't really know it; so you start furnishing it. You move in. Make it permanent. The more you furnish it the more loathe you are to move or change. This habitual way of living becomes your "identity." It's not at all your true identity, but it gets you by. So you accept it as who you "really" are. In time you forget that this "image" of yourself is consciously or unconsciously self-created - self-imposed for purposes of convenience.
But deep down you know it's not who you really are. This becomes the cause of much of the conflict in your life - much of the stress and anxiety you experience. The masses of people are satisfied with justgetting by, but you are not! You know you have lots of potential, know you are much healthier, happier and smarter than you "habitually" express. And, by golly, you're going to realize and be that potential!
You want to make a habit of being your spontaneous, real self in the ever present moment. In other words, you want to be free, free of all habituation, all limitation! You want to be your original self. But how? By keeping conscious and constant distance from everything you see, hear, think, feel, do and say - all the time. Detachment is the key, operative word. Keeping a detached attitude toward all experience changes mindless reactions to intelligent responses.
No two responses are ever the same because no two situations are ever the same. The detachment habit breaks the attachment habit. Bad habits now fall away on their own for lack of supporting energy. Good habits are reinforced. The difference between a bad and good habit now is that one is unconscious repetition; the other, conscious repetition. One limits you, the other empowers you.
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