Habits: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Ever go through those times in life when it seems like one blaring message keeps getting repeated to you over and over from different sources? At first you might think it’s an odd coincidence that you hear something similar in one place and then another, and then you finally realize that perhaps there’s a deeper message or lesson to be learned (Disclaimer: this post might contain affiliate links).

I’m in one such “episode” now–and the theme? Habits. Sounds boring, I know, but stick with me because I’ve actually found it to be quite fascinating. I would consider myself to have a fairly decent grasp on habits, both good and bad, and the effect that they can have on our lives.

The problem, I’ve realized, is how much of life we just go through without really thinking about what habits we have, whether they’re good or bad. I’ve been reading The Compound Effect, and in it, Hardy explains that 95% of what we feel, think, and do is habits. I thought, ‘really? that much?’ But as he explained more, I realized how much of our lives really is habit, or routine.

I don’t know about you, but I have a routine I do every morning and every night. It basically takes the same amount of time and has the same steps every day. It might seem mundane, but it’s habit, so I don’t have to think about it, I just do it. These are things like brushing our teeth and getting ready for our day, eating breakfast, and so forth.

But habits go beyond the day-to-day routines. We have eating habits and exercise habits, internet surfing and Facebook habits, and habits that others would never really be able to discern: that which goes on within our minds.

Looking at this list, are your habits good or bad? Probably a mixture of both. I’ll admit tonight I ate cereal for dinner because my husband wasn’t home and if I don’t have to cook for the family, I don’t. It’s probably not my best habit, but at least I’m consistent.

In these past several months, I’ve tried to implement habits that would make me healthier. This included taking daily walks. While I realize that the walking is good exercise and I like that it helps me achieve my FitBit goal, that’s not actually why I walk. I walk because being in the fresh air, moving my body, and allowing my mind to process what’s happening in my life makes me feel more equipped to handle what life throws at me. I’ve even referred to it as my ‘hour of power.’ If it’s just Reagan and I, I’m talking out loud the entire time. I share with her some of the things we see as we are walking, but mostly I just process my day out loud, name my short-term and long-term goals, share vision and dreams, speak the truth of God’s Word out loud, and pray. It’s an invigorating experience. There are definitely days that I don’t want to go, but I push myself to keep the daily habit, knowing that it’s a holistic way to keep me healthy.

This brings me to my next habit: habits of the mind. This is a critical area that I hadn’t realized how much I’d been poisoned, if you will. I remember vividly being in a grocery store with my best friend, and although I don’t know exactly what I was referring to, I remember declaring: “Good thing I’m amazingly self-assured.” That was quite a few years ago and life has dealt me some pretty tough blows since then. I’ll admit that some of that confidence has been shaken, but in the last two months I’ve been fighting to get it back.

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ The converse is true: nutrients in, nutrients out. I’ve been working on nourishing my mind with positive things through what I’ve been reading and through what I’ve been listening to, as well as by avoiding Facebook. This has made a HUGE difference. I’m consistently reading and listening every day, and have chosen to stop mindlessly scrolling through Facebook to see what’s going on in peoples’ lives. I just found that it was a waste of my time and a drain on my emotional storehouse. I didn’t want to just be doing it when I was bored, but rather, make use of that time to speak out truth or pray or dream or whatever. And it really has made a difference in how I think. Nutrients in, nutrients out; garbage in, garbage out.

I think that if we actually thought more about the things that we are doing unconsciously, we might actually make different choices with our habits. No one wakes up in the morning and says today my goal is to eat junk food all day, gain a few pounds, waste two hours scrolling through Facebook, and be distracted and unproductive at work, then watch four hours of TV at night. And if you do, well, that’s unfortunate. But the point is, we often don’t make these things goals or conscious habits, but if we looked closely at our day, that’s what we do.

Awareness is the first step to change, and, I suppose, is followed closely by a desire to actually change. Hardy suggests that tracking any kind of habit, good or bad, is a sure-fire way to bring more awareness and help make a change.

Remember what I said about why I go for walks? It’s not a basic how to stay in shape, or how to stay healthy or lose weight, or whatever. None of those things motivate me to actually exercise daily. What motivates me is my why.

Hardy, in The Compound Effect, says this about why-power: “All of the hows will be meaningless until your whys are powerful enough. Until you’ve set your desire and motivation in place, you’ll abandon any new path you seek to better your life. If your why-power–your desire–isn’t great enough, if the fortitude of your commitment isn’t powerful enough, you’ll end up like every other person who makes a New Year’s resolution and gives up too quickly and reverts to sleepwalking through poor choices.”

Yikes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sleepwalk my way through life making poor choices. But that’s the thing, if we’re sleepwalking, we don’t even realize it! We first have to wake up to our habits.

Sometimes this process is challenging…thinking through the ‘good, the bad, and the ugly’ habits that we have. But what do we stand to gain by doing so? A healthier you? More time? Less clutter? More efficiency? Less waste? The possibilities are endless if we simply take the time to evaluate the things that we do (or don’t do) throughout our day. Maybe you can begin by choosing one good habit to celebrate or create, and one poor habit to give the boot. Who knows, your future self just might thank you for it.

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