Life is So Habit Forming

As it turns out, I can form habits quickly and easily. There’s only one thing I’ve taught myself: To form habitual actions to ensure my days run smoothly thereby making my life a lot easier and healthy.

Breakfast.

After almost 16 years of thinking I can survive the first meal of the day, I’ve recently realised the folly of my ways.

Two weekends ago I awoke at 2.00pm (it had been a long night!) I sat down to have cereal and orange juice . When I turned on the computer after eating, I felt so energised that I finally determined that eating BEFORE enduring a day of data-entry would be habit worth forming!

Since beginning this new habit – two weeks already, weekends also – my stomach and lower intestine love me again! Muesli and milk, no sugar, and a tall glass of OJ – any more would be pure greed!

Mail

Long before a modem received emails in our home, the metal box at the front of the lawn got filled with glossy magazines, bills, event-endorsements, and other ‘paperubbish‘.

We were first-time home-owners and I knew that someone would need to take responsibility for emptying the box on a regular basis.

From the first time we drove up, I immediately walked back down the hill to grab the handful of papers. 10 years on, and still doing this one small job in our lifestyle.

E-Mail

With the advent of hand-held devices that enable email to be delivered right into my lap while I’m on the train to work, my while life has changed again.

I’m now able to write responses to previously received messages, send them off when we find a free wife spot, and await your response, all that while happily and patiently knowing that I have easier access to my life. Being able to communicate quicker, sooner and easier – all without waiting until I get home – has some massive advantages.

Are we getting too reliant on devices? Are our lives now held together by technologically advanced tin cans? Or is this the next phase in man’s evolution? Are our habits like our love of easier ways to control time – a result of our laziness?

I suggest that man is simply adapting, taking advantage and ensuring his regime, habits and environment can be easily adapted at any given time, all whilst still staying structured and simple.

Man is but a tool within his own domain, another appendage for devices to connect, enabling data to move freely.

At a personal level, this means that every action I perform – whether that be sleep, work or play – is now organised, structured and wastes no time. This makes me happy.

Yet, because I am man not machine, I can still let go of the habits to enjoy time with nieces to be chased by an ocean wave, kick a ball over the neighbor’s fence.

Life is not all organized; Random acts of chaos make it all worthwhile, fun, and interesting!