5 Key Insights from Felix Ravaisson’s Of Habit You Should Know

By Remi Mathis – Own work, Public Domain

You think you’re in control of your life? You wake up, stretch, drink your coffee, shuffle through your morning routine, head to work, come home, crash, rinse, repeat.

You feel like you’ve got a handle on it, right? But you don’t. You’re not the one pulling the strings. It’s your habits. They’re the invisible force steering your ship. And they’ve got you trapped in the same damn loop, day after day.

Felix Ravaisson wasn’t some dusty philosopher sitting on a perch with a pipe and a high-brow idea of what life should be.

He was digging into the dirty details of human nature. He knew the score. He understood how habits don’t just shape your actions—they become you.

You think you’re free? You’re not. You’re a puppet, and the strings are made of repetition. Let’s break it down.

1. Habits Are Your Invisible Puppet Strings

You walk through your day like a ghost. You do things automatically, like some mindless drone, and you don’t even realize you’ve lost control.

Ravaisson isn’t giving you a warm, fuzzy idea about how habits help you. Nah. He’s talking about how they own you. You’re not some enlightened being making free, independent choices. You’re a zombie, marching through your life on repeat.

You think you’re choosing your actions? Think again. You wake up, go through your motions, and it’s all been pre-programmed. It’s like pressing play on a cassette that’s been playing the same track for years. Boring as hell, but you can’t get off the ride.

You think you’re in charge of your life? Not anymore. These habits are the strings pulling your limbs. You just don’t see them.

2. Repetition: The Silent Tyrant of Your Life

Ravaisson didn’t beat around the bush. He saw repetition for what it is: the silent force shaping everything you do.

You’ve done it so many times that it’s now automatic. You don’t even think about it anymore. It’s like you’ve been hypnotized into a routine. And guess what? The more you repeat something, the more powerful it gets.

That first cup of coffee in the morning? That’s a pact you made with your brain. And now, your brain expects that hit like a junkie expects their next fix.

Every time you do something, you’re not just doing it once—you’re engraving it into your mind. The more you do it, the stronger the imprint. It’s like carving a groove into your skull. A little bit deeper each time. You can’t just walk away from it. It owns you now.

The sad truth? The more you repeat something, the less you have to choose. It becomes a part of you. The habit takes over. And you? Well, you’re just a spectator at this point.

3. Conscious Choice? You’re Kidding Yourself

Ravaisson wasn’t one to sugar-coat it. You think you’re making conscious choices? Nah. Those choices are the result of years of habits molding you into the person you are today.

You don’t even see it. You walk into the kitchen and grab a snack without thinking. You think it’s your “choice” to eat that bag of chips? No. It’s your habit, born from years of eating chips when you were bored, or stressed, or just because they’re there.

This isn’t just about what you do. It’s about how your brain has been programmed. You’ve spent years training your mind, conditioning it to act without real thought. You think you have free will, but it’s just an illusion. A sick joke.

When you light that cigarette, you aren’t really choosing. That’s just the ghost of all the times you’ve lit one before. Your brain’s already made that decision for you. It’s not free will. It’s just you being a slave to the habit you’ve repeated a thousand times.

4. The Habit of Thought: Your Mind Is a Prison

Ravaisson didn’t stop at actions. He saw it all—the way your mind works, the mental habits that you’ve repeated so often, they’ve become the way you see the world.

You’re in a mental prison of your own making. You think about the same damn things over and over. “I’m not good enough.” “I can’t do this.” “I’ll never change.” And the worst part? Those thoughts feel so damn natural. You don’t even question them.

You’ve convinced yourself that your thoughts are “yours” when they’re nothing but the product of endless repetition.

Those doubts, those fears, they’re the scars left by your mind’s habits. And they’re hard to shake. You’ve fed them for so long that they’ve become your reality.

It’s like looking in the mirror and seeing someone you hate. You’ve been telling yourself these lies so often, you can’t see them for what they are anymore. And that’s the real tragedy. You’ve been trained to think this way.

5. Transforming Habits: The Painful Road to Freedom

Here’s where things get tricky, pal. Ravaisson wasn’t one of those smug nihilists sitting on his ass, sipping brandy, and waving the white flag of “well, you’re screwed, buddy.”

Nah, he had something else up his sleeve. He understood that life isn’t just about staring into the abyss and waiting for it to swallow you whole.

There’s a way out, but it’s not the easy way. You can change, but not with a snap of your fingers. You can break the cycle, but it’s going to cost you.

A lot of sweat. A lot of grit. You can’t just wake up one morning, rub your eyes, and say, “Alright, today I’m a completely different person.” That’s fantasy. The world doesn’t work like that, and neither do you.

You’ve been doing this routine thing for years, decades even. It’s ingrained in your skin, your bones, your damn soul.

So now, you’re supposed to just rip it all out and start fresh? Good luck with that. It’s not that simple. It’s not like flipping a switch. No, you have to actively engage in the fight.

You want to quit smoking? Great. You don’t just say, “I’ll quit.” You don’t just sit around waiting for the willpower fairy to sprinkle some magic dust on you.

You replace that cigarette with something else. Something real. Something that doesn’t kill you. Maybe it’s a walk around the block or a snack, or a new routine where you don’t end up with your hand in your pocket looking for another pack.

You think that’s easy? Hell no. The old habits are stubborn as hell. They don’t just curl up and die quietly. No, they’re like a bunch of rabid dogs chasing you, nipping at your heels, snapping and snarling at every step you take away from them.

They want you back. They want you back in the same goddamn cage. And they’ll fight you every step of the way.

But here’s the thing: you can win. If you keep at it. Step by brutal step. It’s like chipping away at a concrete wall with a hammer and chisel. You don’t see the progress immediately. Hell, you might not see it for a while. But that doesn’t mean the wall isn’t coming down.

There’s no big reveal. No slow-motion, tear-filled victory. It’s messy. It’s ugly. But change? Yeah, change is possible. It takes time. It takes effort.

And you have to want it. But if you fight hard enough, you can rewrite the script.

You can rip out the old chapter of your life and carve a new one, even if it takes a bloody, ugly fight.

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