August typically marks the end of summer for a lot of kids, and the beginning of a new school year.

For some students, summer was a season of free time. Vacations. Staying up late. Sleeping in even later. And while you only get one chance to be a kid, summer has a way of building some habits you didn't sign up for.

A habit, by definition, is a behavior you do automatically because you've repeated it enough times that it no longer requires conscious thought. Here's the part people miss: habits don't come pre-labeled as good or bad. They're just automatic. Whether they help you or hurt you depends entirely on what you repeated.

The reason I care so much about this: the future you get is determined by the habits you demonstrate, not the goals you set.

If your habits support your health, your well-being, your productivity, your future will reflect it. Whether you meant for it to or not. And if your habits work against you, the future reflects that too, goals or no goals.

Here's the good part. Even if summer built a few habits you're not proud of, none of them are permanent. All it takes is a decision to interrupt the pattern and start a new one. Author Charles Duhigg, in The Power of Habit, breaks down exactly how habits form, through what he calls the habit loop:

That loop is running in your life right now, whether you're steering it or not. Habits are what you do so often they stop feeling like choices and start feeling like who you are.

Today's a good day to look at the loop you've been running, and decide if it's building the future you actually want.

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.