Exactly Vince. Behaviors or programs are very powerful states, especially where the behavior poses a problem repeatidly. They run a vicious circle, the more you think about them or act on them, the stronger they become, and in some cases the more complicated and sophisticated they become. As a result it becomes more difficult to think of anything else, because the problem behavior is right their, in the moment, it seems to be the thing you must focus on to handle the situation, or that is, the only choice or direction one has. If you've ever lost your temper you'll have a better understanding of how these behaviors take control. In such a situation the best way to overcome the behavior is to step back from it and at least attempt to gain a better more effective perspective. These things, in my opinion, ARE anchored to past behavior and/or situations, that is they are learned behavior, whether tey are learned through conscious effort or during a reflex reaction to strong stimuli, that come out as reactions to situations as means of copping, they can be activated automatically, fired off by stimuli, or they can be activated by us as a choice that we see as an effective means of copping, a sort of learned meta behavior, in which case the meta behavior is actually the culprite.  In this case, we decide to take a course of action that is not well suited for the situation, because of our memory of it being effective once upon a time in another, perhaps similar situation. The latter, in my opinion, is the easiest, since we're making a conscious, although brief decision to act out these programs, therefore we have a brief moment or moments in which to decide if these programs are the best solution, or if we should explore the possibility of better choices or actions. The former I see as more difficult, because it's not something we're consciously aware of, it's not merely associated with our memory of it being a good solution, instead it is anchored to a deep seated emotion, it's something that comes from our subconscious where we have little control over it. To change this behavior we must first bring it out into the conscious world, where we can recognize it for what it is, we have to talk to it, find it's motives, and work with it in an effort to find a better solution for IT, on it's own terms, because in effect, it makes it's own decisions based on it's own criteria. I believe it's important to first recognize where, when and what we want to change, and determine whether they are anchors that we have no control over, or simply learned meta behaviors. Then we can decide on the most appropriate course of action.