This could be one of the most important episodes you've ever listened to.I'm guessing you've probably spent a significant amount of time trying to "get rid of bad habits" and "create new healthy habits" over the years?Then keep reading...Whenever the word "habits" is mentioned, people tend to think about repeating something until they start doing it automatically.For example, "I'm going to start running every day. After a while, running daily will be a habit."Researchers have even "confirmed" that this is how it works, they just struggle to agree on how long it takes (I say "confirmed" in jest).Some researchers say 21 days while others say 66. And there are many different answers in between and outside of those figures.I call bullshit on all of this.All of it.If you look at the "habits" most people engage in, they engage in those habits for one simple reason...Consequences.That's it. Life is an ongoing cost-benefit analysis.Choose any habitual behavior you engage in and look at it more closely.You're either doing that behavior to gain something or to avoid losing something. At the end of the day, you engage in that behavior because the perceived payoff outweighs the perceived costs.That's it.Habit building isn't a game of repetition, it's a game of perspective.Perspective is based on a combination of things: life experience, psychological narratives and engrained beliefs, value perception, etc.Your perspective is what creates your priorities.Your priorities drive your behavior.So what is a habit then?A habit is a behavior that gets repeated because the conclusion of the cost-benefit analysis you're running on it hasn't changed.Trying to create a habit through forced repetition is like trying to make someone like you by writing them a love note every day.If their perspective on you is that you're annoying, the notes will only make you seem more annoying. They'll never work.If their perspective on you is neutral, the notes are kinda weird.The only way the notes will work is if you're already viewed favorably by them.It's all perspective.Therefore...The only thing you can really do to quit "bad" habits or install new habits is to change your perspective.Mostly, it's about changing the outcome of the cost-benefit analysis by changing your perspective on the benefits versus the costs."But Kevin, if what you're saying is true, bad habits wouldn't exist because people would see that the cost is too high!"You might think that's the case if you take the term "bad habit" at face value.But what is a "bad habit?"First, calling a habit "bad" is subjective and relative.Many people call fingernail biting a "bad habit." But many people who bite their fingernails don't agree with that assessment. They see no problem with it, thus they have no intention to stop this "bad habit."Sure, there are certain habits that a vast majority of people all agree have destructive consequences.But...Just because a behavior has destructive consequences doesn't mean that specific behavior doesn't have a payoff that outweighs those consequences.Look at drug addicts or alcoholics. They engage in destructive behavior habitually (aka "bad habits").But if you really understand the position they're in, you understand that addicts are often so internally disorganized that they see the cost of quitting the addiction as being far greater than the perceived benefit of being clean.Getting clean, after all, requires immense pain. And staying clean means living without your drug and your escape mechanism.Staying an addict, even with the obvious destructive consequences, is perceived to be much easier.Now you might say, "But that's ridiculous. It's obvious that being clean would be much better than being an addict!"It's obvious TO YOU, because you have a different perspective.Value is subjective. Addiction is perceived to be more valuable [to addicts] than sobriety is.Once again,