Are you sabotaging your self-growth efforts unknowingly by indulging in habits with an unknown impact? All of our habits have a far-reaching impact on other people and the planet.

Self-improvement is rooted in examining your thoughts, ideas, and habits and rooting out ineffective behaviors that hold you back. Sometimes looking deeper and deeper is the only way to know that a behavior is holding you back. At first glance, some behaviors might seem perfectly fine but when you look again, you can see they’re working against you.

How far are you willing to examine the impact of your habits? If you’re not willing to examine the far-reaching impact of seemingly harmless habits, at a certain point, you’ll reach a wall with self-transformation.

Unexamined habits perpetuate short-sightedness

If you’re trying to transform your life, you need to remain in the habit of digging deeper and deeper until you’re uncomfortable. If you’re not uncomfortable, you haven’t dug deeply enough. When it comes to self-growth, comfort and complacency are not your friends.

Having unexamined habits that seem harmless could be stumbling blocks to your personal transformation. Harmful habits aren’t always obvious. Sometimes you need to dig really deep to find the harm.

If you’re not willing to dig to find potential harm with your everyday habits, you’ll probably never catalyze the level of self-transformation you’re after.

Something as simple as your morning shaving routine could be more harmful than you realize.  For instance, do you use disposable or cartridge razors? If so, you’re harming the planet whether you recycle them or not.

Each month, more than 1.5 billion razor blade cartridges are sent to landfills. However, even if you recycle your razors through a special program, you’re still harming the environment. Finding comfort in recycling is short-sighted because the recycling industry itself harms the environment.

Question everything you’ve been taught

We’ve all been taught that recycling is the answer and will save the planet. This isn’t true. Sure, we’re getting good at reusing materials, but the recycling process uses massive resources that harm the planet.

The American Institute for Economic Research points out that recycling requires substantial infrastructure for picking up, transporting, sorting, cleaning, and processing materials. Recycling isn’t just one activity but a collection of multiple processes that handle multiple streams of resources all managed individually and independently.

Do you recycle glass? Maybe you shouldn’t. Many municipalities have phased out glass recycling because it’s too costly. When glass is collected with other recyclable materials, broken glass can contaminate the entire load by sticking to cardboard and ruining the sorting machinery. Also, there’s no market for recycled glass.

Are you still convinced that recycling is good for the planet?

For true self-growth, you need to have long sight and be willing to look beyond all layers to identify the far-reaching effects of your actions and choices no matter how uncomfortable.

Self-transformation comes with a side of ultimate responsibility

If you’re aiming for a high level of self-transformation, you’re automatically signing yourself up for taking ultimate responsibility for everything in your life, whether you’re “to blame” or not. When you reach that level of transformation, you’ll want to dig deep into everything you’ve ever been involved in to make sure it’s in alignment with your core values.

Your unexamined habits of today could be the habits you ditch when you take complete responsibility for the effects of your choices. There’s no reason to wait until then to examine your habits. Step into that role now and you’ll be ahead of the game when you reach that point.

Examine the effects of every choice as far as you can see

Don’t let unexamined habits run interference on your self-improvement goals. Look at everything you do with long sight to identify the long-term impact your actions have on you, other people, and the planet. Incorporate this depth of responsibility into your life today and you’ll be far more effective in your world.

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