The Habit of Habits

How many things do you do each day out of habit?  5? 10? 20? More?

While making my bed last week, I flipped on the Today Show just in time to hear Ann Curry ask the author of a new book on how and why we develop habits to define his terms.  His answer?  A habit develops when one day we make a choice to do something, then keep making that choice so frequently that in time we no longer make a choice to do it; we simply do it without giving it any conscious thought.

Hmmm.  I like that.

I’ve been pondering my habits this week.  I’ve found I have a LOT more habits than I realized.  Sure, some are obvious—my morning coffee, taking my makeup off before I go to bed, using the same dry cleaners I’ve used for years.  Others, however, have been more subtle, but just as predictable all the same; what I say when I pick up Ashton from school; what I order at fast food restaurants (if you’ve ever heard me order at a drive-thru, you’re nodding your head), what I buy at the grocery store each week.  Some of my habits are good; others, not so much; many, completely neutral.

All of my habits, though, began with one seemingly insignificant decision.  A decision I made once.  Then twice.  Then over and over and over, until somewhere along the line I stopped choosing it, and “it” started defining me.

Wow.  That’s thought provoking, don’t you think?

Habits can be physical (like whether we exercise or not), emotional (like our coping mechanisms to deal with stress), spiritual (like spending time with God each day or praying for our kids each night), social (like having lunch with same group of friends), financial (like shopping to cure “the blues”) or relational (like nagging your husband until he finishes the “honey do” list). Habits can be something we picked up during childhood, or initiated in adulthood. Habits affect every area of our life.

So…what are your habits? What do you do, say, think, so frequently that these ways of living are hard to imagine changing?  If you are like me, an honest peek into what you do when you’re living on auto-pilot will give you a keen insight into your life.  No doubt you’ll recognize some habits you’re glad you’ve embraced. But maybe you’ll find a habit or two that’s not so beneficial.

The good news is this:  You are only one choice away from starting a new habit.

A few years ago I knew I had developed an unhealthy relationship with diet coke.  Friends would warn me about its danger to my health. I feigned interest but kept right on drinking the stuff.  Finally though, I realized my habit had turned into an addiction.  Sure, I could have waved it off as harmless (in fact, I did for years), but one day—and I don’t even remember why—I decided to quit.  The decision seemed easy in the comfort of my living room, but at noon when I swung through Jack in the Box (for a chicken fajita pita, of course!) my resolve almost wavered. I knew changing my habit would have to be a conscious choice; a decision to choose something else, something better.

“I’ll have an unsweetened iced tea with lemon.”

One choice.  One day. One time.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

Until today I don’t even question what I drink at lunch.

Drinking diet coke vs. iced tea is pretty benign among the myriad of habits we all have, but the principle of replacing one choice for another, better one, rings true no matter what habit you’re trying to overcome.

Maybe you need to replace…

Worrying with praying…

Spending with saving…

Criticizing with encouraging…

Exploding with explaining…

Skipping church with going to church…

Procrastinating with starting…

Tardiness with promptness (ouch!)…

Isolating with engaging…

Time on the computer with time in God’s word…

or???

Our habits don’t have to control us.  We can control them.

One

Choice

At

A

Time.

You and I are one choice away from a new habit.

Why wait?