What makes a habit? How long until the habit is formed? Can you break it or do you just develop a new habit opposite the first? Even though at the time, I didn’t think of myself ‘changing bad habits!’ I just knew there weren’t a couple of things going for me in the new direction of life I’m going.So I’m writing about three things I changed about myself that I didn’t like. I gave myself over a year and I am proud to say I have three new habits 😀
- Cigarettes. Gross, I know it. Because I saw myself as a social smoker, I didn’t see it as a ‘habit’, even though it is considered one of the worst ones. But I still would fire one up if I saw someone else smoking, like it reminded me that I too, smoked. I smoked out of boredom and like the song, I smoked when I drank.. None of the things happen often(except Michael smoking, yes I’m pointing fingers here ;)), so when money started getting tight natural not smoking was the easier choice. It got to be where I didn’t enjoy them at all, it was the middle of last summer, and it was to the point I wanted to save that 5 dollars.. I damn sure didn’t want it to go to the tobacco tycoons and govt tax. So, I quit. I wasn’t going to waste any more of my money here. I now have the habit of not smoking.
- Remember the Sesame Street commercial about saving water. The kid was brushing his teeth with the water running and then it shows the fish or whale outside with a declining water level as the kid continues. The fish finally calls the boy and asks him to shut the water off. Horrible, wasn’t it. Unfortunately, I was that kid until last year. Sometimes I would even mentally argue with myself that I should be turning the water off while I brush (I watched sesame Street), then justify by thinking, well I’m almost done.. Well now I’m doing my part and turning the water off while I brush. New habit #2, oh yeah.
- Now this is about to get on a personal level.. Have you ever smelled the stuff on your dental floss after you flossed? I’m being for real, especially if you’re not a regular flosser? If you haven’t, go floss your teeth right now and smell it.. It should smell like rotting food that’s been stuck between there. You tell me it doesn’t you’re lying. I wasn’t a big flosser growing up. The day i went to the dentist, where they would always chastise me for not flossing, giving me the whole an ounce of prevention spill, yada yada ya. See ya in 6 months.. In my early twenties I tried to floss more, which equaled like one a moth, maybe twice. How are you going to tell your kid to floss everyday when you don’t..?My epiphany moment was the first time I smelled the floss. Seriously, I think it was one of those flosser/pick things..on my way to the dentist. After that, along with the number of cavities I could have prevented just by flossing my teeth, I’m the proudest to say I now floss my teeth every day.
All of these new habits go with my new lifestyle. They are small things, but they will show great results in the end. They already have. I don’t even like to be around cigarette smoke anymore. It’s second nature now to turn that knob off after I wet my toothbrush. And my teeth just feel icky if I don’t get to floss first thing that morning. Success 😉
countingdownfromzero 