Day 3: Habit

How many can identify with being a creature of habit? I think most everyone is to some extent. We find comfort in repetition and knowing that what we do will generate the same results. Or maybe that’s just me.

My husband has the same pancakes for breakfast and the same sandwich for lunch every day during the week. I’ve been known to do this for several weeks or months at a time, too, then suddenly one day I want something different. I like that my husband is predictable in that way. It certainly makes it easier for me to plan meals when I know what he likes and doesn’t like. We do our grocery shopping together, but if I ever had to do it on my own, then I would know exactly what to get for him.

But what happens when that ritual is broken for some reason? Do we get bent out of shape? Can we handle the change?

The sandwich that my husband used to buy for lunch suddenly started dwindling from the freezer section of the grocery store. He talked to the grocery manager, and they said they weren’t ordering it any more. Something similar had happened to him once before with some chicken pot pies that he liked for dinner when he was still single, but he found out that the company stopped making them. This time, however, the store just stopped ordering it, but oddly enough they told him that they would go to the competitor store and buy theirs to sell to him. Seriously? It was a little (no, a lot) weird that they would offer that, so we declined. He was somewhat bent out of shape when this first happened, but he ended up finding another sandwich to start taking for his lunch. Let’s hope they don’t stop making this one!

Good habits to get into are making schedules so that you’re never at a loss of where you’re supposed to be or what you’re supposed to be doing. I’ve been using Google Calendar since 2006, and it has saved me many times from missing out on something that I likely would forget. Making commitments to exercising on specific days has helped me, though I’m still working on it. I find that the less I dwell on making decisions and just doing things automatically, the better off I am at keeping with those good habits. If I know that every Thursday I am going to go to water aerobics, it makes it easier for me to not make other plans on Thursday evenings. I simply work better on a schedule and get more accomplished.

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” – Samuel Johnson 

Are you more of a scheduled person or someone spontaneous? What habits have you formed that have been good for you? Do you have any bad habits that you need to change?

Read more about the 31 Days of Journaling Prompts

Today’s recommended 31 Day Blogger: 31 Days of Good Books @ The Pentriloquist