In 1982, Criminologist James Q. Wilson and George Kelling came up with the Broken Window Theory. The Broken Window Theory suggests that a broken window left unrepaired will make a building look uncared for or abandoned and so is likely to attract more vandals to break all the other windows and may even escalate into a more serious crime.

If a damaged building attracts more damage, could this theory also apply to people?

Everybody can identify something that they do that they know is bad for them. Whether it’s smoking, drinking, binge eating, staying in an abusive relationship, staying in a job you hate, taking shit from your boss or simply surrounding yourself with negative people, all these aspects of your life could trigger your first internal broken window, which may escalate in to further damage.

“Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you.” – Rob Gilbert (Click to Tweet This)

A bad job may cause you to go home and drink yourself to sleep whilst at the same time ruining your health. An abusive relationship may cause your to binge eat for comfort and lead to further abuse and again destroy your health.

Sometimes we become so accepting of the negative routines and environments we’ve built around us that our broken windows go unnoticed. It’s then not until they’ve all been smashed through that we sit up and re-access our lives, wondering how we let it get this far.

“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” – Jim Rohn (Click to Tweet This)

By identifying your internal broken windows or surrounding yourself with people who are brave enough to tell you about yourself, without conflict, when things go wrong – is a sure fire way to attracting positivity and success in to your life.

Nobody is perfect, everybody has broken windows, but only by having the awareness of them being there in the first place can we send somebody out to make the repairs.