It happens slowly, over a period of time, without our knowledge, as a result of environmental factors and life experiences, shaping how we think and respond.

Identifying it is the first step. And a pretty hard one at that. It comes out of an inspired moment of self awareness or, as it is most often, because someone points it out.

Once we have gotten past that first hurdle, the next one is learning how to counteract it.

Finally the last step which is as hard as the first one. Even after we have figured out how to deal with it, we will still fall back to old conditioned habits easily, especially when it is situational. We have to consistently and consciously take stock of our behavior and reset if needed.

Conditioned responses are sneaky, hence the hardest to circumvent. If we don’t, we will never realize the numerous other possibilities that exist out there.