Don't mistake comfortable, for right.

When navigating our way through the world, we use heuristics or mental shortcuts to make decisions. One of these shortcuts centers on familiarity. When we’ve used or seen something before, we’re likely to choose it over something novel or untested. This is a great time saving device for day-to-day choices.?

Trouble comes when we take the familiar without checking to see if it is still the “right” choice, simply because it feels right.?

When you get a referral for a new doctor we place greater value on the fact that they are a friend of a friend than any real research into their credentials. Name recognition carries more weight in brand selection than product features. Staying with bad friendships is often less out of reason than inertia.??

It is easy to believe that our current job, our current girlfriend, our current buddies are probably the best ones for us. We think being the caustic skeptic, or class clown is who we really are.

A new political or philosophical idea seems heretical compared to our present beliefs.

The familiarity heuristic can be useful; what’s worked before often works again and we all need to save time to keep up with the pace of the world. It is useful because at times the right thing, and the familiar thing, do align. Sometimes, however, the familiar can feel good, can feel true, when really, it’s simply comfortable.

Sometimes we hold onto known quantities, long after they’ve stopped working for us. Old ways of doing things fit like your old favorite shirt . . . but we overlook that it is faded and a size too small for who we are today.

Confusing familiarity and comfort with truth because the former allows us to take a known pre-established route, while choosing something different involves forging a new path.

Sometimes a machete must be taken in hand, though. The devil you know may be comforting, but he’s still a devil.

Take time to step back and examine the things you are doing, adjust your process to build new habits or as the military says “shape your environment.” When you do that your odds of success increase and you are not frozen in time when change happens.

Hey, If you want to step back and take a look at your commander's intent, your goals, and the process you've built around you check out a online program with www.commandready.com shape your environment on purpose with interactive learning.