I got started playing the game "Angry Birds" yesterday. I downloaded it initially out of curiosity and, like so many popular things, I stuck around for a while because I was trying to figure out why exactly why it was so popular. It's not a bad game...it's a time suck, but well worth the $1 it cost me.

The reason it's popular, I think, is because it's easy.

I'm not saying the game is without any challenges at all, but it doesn't take a whole lot of talent. You can figure things out in under a minute, and after nail the finesse of launching the birds, most of the game is luck. And so the game itself just becomes a habit.

It made me reflect on other things in my life. Projects I've undertaken, people I've known, stuff I've started, and so on. A lot of those things are like "Angry Birds"...they're easy to keep doing because they're what I've always done, and it's easier to keep doing them, out of habit, than it is to seek out new things.

Not all habits are bad. But more importantly, it's not just the bad ones that need breaking.