Every Behavior has a positive intent

I'm reading this book, NLP for Dummies and this was one of the things that really struck me.

Everything you do, everything you are, you mean something good for yourself from these. It is important to examine why you do something or are something if you want to change. Find the positive intent in your negative behaviors or ways of being and learn to recognize why you don't need them.

Often as kids we will emulate behaviors we see others do or behave a certain way because it will get us the results we want. We don't necessarily stop doing this as adults, we just become more subtle about it, sometimes so subtle we don't even know ourselves we're doing it.

Learning to recognize why you use a negative behavior and why you don't need it will make it easier to change.