Are you getting scammed?
I’ll bet you are and you probably don’t even realize it.
Scams come in all shapes and sizes. There are big ones and little ones. There are those that want to steal your money. Those that want to steal your identity and definitely a few that are designed to rob you of your dignity.
Let’s admit it. We hate being scammed. We hate the very thought of it. What we despise probably even more than losing whatever the scammers are after is just the embarrassment that comes from being duped.
The thing is, we are scammed on almost a daily basis and it is from a very unlikely source.
The Oldest Scam That We Still Fall For
As I said, scams are all over the place especially on the Internet. You’ve probably received more than one email by now informing you that you’ve won a foreign lottery or that you will be paid a large sum of money if you help the widow in Nigeria ransom her inheritance from the government.
These are some very common email scams you definitely want to avoid, but these aren’t the oldest or even most persuasive hoaxes you need to guard against.
The oldest and probably most effective scams of all-time originate in your own brain.
That’s right. Your mind is constantly trying to dupe you into falling for a scheme that seems to promise great returns on the surface, but really just leaves you feeling empty and stupid.
A New Way to View this Old Scam
We typically call these scams we fall for over and over again bad habits.
Have you ever thought of it this way? The whole idea just occurred to me recently, but I think it is very accurate way to view what happens.
A scam is simply a mind game. One carefully constructed to trick you into doing something that you really don’t want to do because the promised pay off simply isn’t there. Not only that, but there is usually a painful price to pay for being the victim of such a caper.
Isn’t this very similar to the way your mind keeps sucking you back into your bad habits?
I believe this is a very useful way to view it.
The Way Your Brain Scams You
Think about how you keep falling for your worst habit. Come on, we all have one that we can’t seem to break.
It starts like this. A small voice in your head whispers something like, “I really need to <substitute your worst habit>.” Or, “No one will ever know if I…”
It all seems irresistible in the beginning. We ask ourselves, “What will it hurt?” I’ll just indulge myself again this once because I’ve had a really tough day. We fall for the lies that we tell ourselves.
Afterward, the guilt and regret make us feel terrible. Despite this, we somehow keep repeating our bad habits over and over and over again.
This is definitely a scam. The oldest scam and yet we keep falling for it.
Use This Knowledge to Break Your Bad Habits
I’ve found this way of thinking about my bad habits very useful. When my brain starts trying to lead me down a path toward undesired behavior, I simply say to myself, “This is just a scam.”
The resistance I feel toward falling for a scam helps me to immediately turn my thoughts away from participating in the bad habit. Slowly, but surely, if I resist enough times, the bad habit loses its hold on me and I am free!
What do you think about this? Is it something you might be able to use to break your bad habits? Leave me a comment below and let me know if you find this useful.
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