WHEN YOU find yourself unintentionally repeating some problematic behavior, it usually seems logical to try to do the opposite. For example, if you are chronically late for appointments, you may try to arrive on time, or even to show up early.
When this doesn’t work, it’s sometimes helpful to shift to the paradoxical approach of freeing yourself from an impulse by indulging it. This trick-against-trick cure is like “setting a thief to catch a thief.” Just as one poison may cure another, a thorn in the skin can be removed by using another thorn.
Decide to arrive late for your next appointment. Try doing on purpose whatever it is you usually do unintentionally.
Once we know what it feels like to do something on purpose, we become better able to stop doing it unintentionally.