Behavior Change

If you ever sought or settled for a change in behavior, what were you motives?  An athlete in training or a scholar in study for a degree will change their behavior to help meet their goals.  On the other hand, an addict will change their goals to meet their behavior, so said an addict. I know I am addicted to something, if I keep changing my goals because I cannot give up my addiction.  If my addiction is perhaps fear, inescapable fear, I will change my goals because I cannot seem to shake the energy of fear.  I get into a rut, that which I know, because it gives me some comfort zone.  A monastery has routines which help in living together.  But if the routines become ruts, then we tend to live under the same roof but separately.  To become available to another person in the moment would take the rut person out of their rut.  So they would not be of service.  Each day I ask myself, "Is this a routine of discipline for growth, or is it a rut of isolation?"  Not always easy to know.