Write Back Weekend "You're A Hard Habit To Break"
Over the years I've learned they don't say "old habits die hard" for nothing. Once you get into the habit of doing something, anything it can be a bit of a challenge to change things around. I am a creature of habit myself. In many ways they say to have a routine and structure is a good thing. But the lines get blurry when a habit borders on the addictive. Striking the balance is the best of both worlds, but sometimes that's easier said than done.
So last week I asked you to tell me about your hardest habits to break. Maybe they are ones you managed to kick only to have new ones crop up in their place. Whatever the reason, I like hearing about other people's quirky habits. They give me a sense of normalcy in my own crazy, kooky world.
Let me preface these lists by saying this; I believe that even if you "conquer" a bad habit, it's still there only it's like the Christmas decorations you might have tucked away in the attic, ready to take out should you ever need them. Most of us who conquer bad habits learn how to put our minds over the matter. I've never been a smoker or a bad drinker but as any true addict will tell you, once you are an addict you are always an addict. It's just a matter of taking your addiction day by day and facing those demons, so to speak, as they come. Some of us can do this quite easily, others need to fall down a few times in the process. It's the getting up again though that counts.
The Habits I've Managed to Kick
1. Nail Biting- When I was a kid, I used to bite my nails constantly. I remember my mom putting that yucky tasting clear nailpolish on my nails just so I would take my fingers out of my mouth, but it never worked. I soldiered on, yucky tasting polish in my mouth, nail biting goal in mind. It got so bad at one point that I would (as gross as it sounds) not stop at nail biting and I would migrate to the surrounding skin. Some days it was quite painful to eat things like pizza.
One day though I had an epiphany. I realized that I wasn't so much addicted to the nail biting itself as I was addicted to the oral fixation (minds out of the gutter, please) of having the fingers in my mouth. Once I discovered that I could keep my fingers around my mouth when I was nervous but not bite them per se, my habit diminished. I have been a former nail biter now for ten plus years. In fact, for the most part I keep my long nails painted and only induldge then near my mouth when I'm super nervous or the paint starts to chip.
2. Popping My Ear- Interestingly enough I've written about the nail biting and my next vice before on this blog. Another nervous twitch of mine is my ability to pop my ears, mainly my left one. Mainly the sensation I get is akin to what you feel when you change altitude on a plane. I get that feeling a lot, for whatever the reason. Sometimes I find popping to be calming, other times I find I had to pop out of necessity because of the pressure that has built up. I have successfully (for the most part) learned to ignore the urge to pop for awhile now, mainly because it's odd to watch me doing it and because if I pop too much, I get one of my infamous eye headaches. Learning to control that eliminates some of the headaches so it was a habit worth conquering.
3. Making Things "Just So"- I never classified myself as an OCD type of person, but I definitely spent the first half of my life and then some having a definite idea of the way certain things were supposed to look. The best way I can think of describing this is by comparing this to the odd behaviors of Monk. He'll be sitting at his doctor's office and just have to straighten out that magazine lying there on the coffee table. Lucky for me it never became that extreme. In fact now I've learned to ignore most little things that are out of place. Although from time to time...
4. Soap Operas- I've also written before about this obsession but mainly all you have to know is that from the ages of say seven to seventeen this was pretty bad. I never was obsessed with one whole hour of soap operas, just favorite story lines that I would watch over and over...and over. If that story line ran stale, I'd simply find another story line or in some cases, another show. I don't know whether I really kicked this habit or it kicked me as around the time of my late teens, I found there really was nothing to be excited about in the soap world. Sure I still watch "nighttime" soaps, but they aren't nearly as addictive in nature as daytime soaps, mainly because daytime soaps don't have repeats and they're on daily. I will say though that over the summer I discovered a wonderful website that had virtually all of the clips of a favorite soap opera couple of mine from years ago. Suffice it to say summertime was the worst time for someone like me to find something like that.
5. Maxing Mix Tapes- I'm torn about this one. On one hand, I used to spend a lot of time making the perfect mix tape for myself and others. Even when we first segued into CD's this was easy enough to do. The reason I feel mixed about this one is because I liked the therapeutic nature that making a great mix CD could give me. I also liked the joy I brought others by introducing them to new music they might have never heard of before. I can't say this has completely died either. Only now the art of the 24 song CD or mix tape is a dying breed considering I have a 40,000 song ipod that allows me to make endless mix tapes. Instead of conquering this habit, I guess you could say I graduated to a new one.
Habits I Need To Work On
1. Grinding My Teeth- This is a hard one because I am unaware that I do it. I wear a night guard at night to deal with the subconscious grinding, but that just means I'm managing the problem, not solving it. But some habits are harder to conquer than others. Sometimes wanting to eliminate stresses or the way you deal with said stresses is easier said than done. It's the habits that are more or less out of your control that remain the most challenging.
2. Cutting People Off When They're Talking- I've noticed this more often lately. It's one thing I hate about myself and probably think it's worse than it really is. To be fair though I have to say that this habit has surfaced mainly out of survival. As a teacher, you often have to dispense a lot of information in a short period of time and you find yourself cutting corners just to fit it all in. Sometimes this spills over into my real life as well, as does the ability to talk super fast yet again, another survival task.
4. Developing ADD Like Tendencies- Again, I blame this one on society. When I was younger I used to relish my alone time with my television shows or a good book. In theory I still do. But I often find there's just so much to accomplish in a short period of time that I end up doing two, maybe three things at once. It's not uncommon for me to "watch" a television show while grading papers and say eating lunch. For the most part I've become very good at multitasking, but it makes me sad that something inside makes me feel it has to be that way. Even when I'm relaxing and just watching TV, something inside of me itches to do something else, just because.
5. Procrastination- Anyone who knows me might be surprised to see this make the list as in theory, I am the farthest thing from a typical procrastinator. I know what I have to do and that I have to do it, and I always get it done in time, often with time to spare. But I do know that I have a tendency to put off conversations, schedulings, blogging and grading sometimes by doing other things, probably one of the other vices listed above. Has it ever really effected me? No. Are there are other people out there who suffer from this farther worse than I do? Absolutely. But that doesn't stop me from beating myself up about it.
Beating myself up. Hmmm...maybe I should have made a top six after all. But then again, going on would mean ironically listing a number seven, being long winded at times.
So last week I asked you to tell me about your hardest habits to break. Maybe they are ones you managed to kick only to have new ones crop up in their place. Whatever the reason, I like hearing about other people's quirky habits. They give me a sense of normalcy in my own crazy, kooky world.
Let me preface these lists by saying this; I believe that even if you "conquer" a bad habit, it's still there only it's like the Christmas decorations you might have tucked away in the attic, ready to take out should you ever need them. Most of us who conquer bad habits learn how to put our minds over the matter. I've never been a smoker or a bad drinker but as any true addict will tell you, once you are an addict you are always an addict. It's just a matter of taking your addiction day by day and facing those demons, so to speak, as they come. Some of us can do this quite easily, others need to fall down a few times in the process. It's the getting up again though that counts.
The Habits I've Managed to Kick
1. Nail Biting- When I was a kid, I used to bite my nails constantly. I remember my mom putting that yucky tasting clear nailpolish on my nails just so I would take my fingers out of my mouth, but it never worked. I soldiered on, yucky tasting polish in my mouth, nail biting goal in mind. It got so bad at one point that I would (as gross as it sounds) not stop at nail biting and I would migrate to the surrounding skin. Some days it was quite painful to eat things like pizza.
One day though I had an epiphany. I realized that I wasn't so much addicted to the nail biting itself as I was addicted to the oral fixation (minds out of the gutter, please) of having the fingers in my mouth. Once I discovered that I could keep my fingers around my mouth when I was nervous but not bite them per se, my habit diminished. I have been a former nail biter now for ten plus years. In fact, for the most part I keep my long nails painted and only induldge then near my mouth when I'm super nervous or the paint starts to chip.
2. Popping My Ear- Interestingly enough I've written about the nail biting and my next vice before on this blog. Another nervous twitch of mine is my ability to pop my ears, mainly my left one. Mainly the sensation I get is akin to what you feel when you change altitude on a plane. I get that feeling a lot, for whatever the reason. Sometimes I find popping to be calming, other times I find I had to pop out of necessity because of the pressure that has built up. I have successfully (for the most part) learned to ignore the urge to pop for awhile now, mainly because it's odd to watch me doing it and because if I pop too much, I get one of my infamous eye headaches. Learning to control that eliminates some of the headaches so it was a habit worth conquering.
3. Making Things "Just So"- I never classified myself as an OCD type of person, but I definitely spent the first half of my life and then some having a definite idea of the way certain things were supposed to look. The best way I can think of describing this is by comparing this to the odd behaviors of Monk. He'll be sitting at his doctor's office and just have to straighten out that magazine lying there on the coffee table. Lucky for me it never became that extreme. In fact now I've learned to ignore most little things that are out of place. Although from time to time...
4. Soap Operas- I've also written before about this obsession but mainly all you have to know is that from the ages of say seven to seventeen this was pretty bad. I never was obsessed with one whole hour of soap operas, just favorite story lines that I would watch over and over...and over. If that story line ran stale, I'd simply find another story line or in some cases, another show. I don't know whether I really kicked this habit or it kicked me as around the time of my late teens, I found there really was nothing to be excited about in the soap world. Sure I still watch "nighttime" soaps, but they aren't nearly as addictive in nature as daytime soaps, mainly because daytime soaps don't have repeats and they're on daily. I will say though that over the summer I discovered a wonderful website that had virtually all of the clips of a favorite soap opera couple of mine from years ago. Suffice it to say summertime was the worst time for someone like me to find something like that.
5. Maxing Mix Tapes- I'm torn about this one. On one hand, I used to spend a lot of time making the perfect mix tape for myself and others. Even when we first segued into CD's this was easy enough to do. The reason I feel mixed about this one is because I liked the therapeutic nature that making a great mix CD could give me. I also liked the joy I brought others by introducing them to new music they might have never heard of before. I can't say this has completely died either. Only now the art of the 24 song CD or mix tape is a dying breed considering I have a 40,000 song ipod that allows me to make endless mix tapes. Instead of conquering this habit, I guess you could say I graduated to a new one.
Habits I Need To Work On
1. Grinding My Teeth- This is a hard one because I am unaware that I do it. I wear a night guard at night to deal with the subconscious grinding, but that just means I'm managing the problem, not solving it. But some habits are harder to conquer than others. Sometimes wanting to eliminate stresses or the way you deal with said stresses is easier said than done. It's the habits that are more or less out of your control that remain the most challenging.
2. Cutting People Off When They're Talking- I've noticed this more often lately. It's one thing I hate about myself and probably think it's worse than it really is. To be fair though I have to say that this habit has surfaced mainly out of survival. As a teacher, you often have to dispense a lot of information in a short period of time and you find yourself cutting corners just to fit it all in. Sometimes this spills over into my real life as well, as does the ability to talk super fast yet again, another survival task.
4. Developing ADD Like Tendencies- Again, I blame this one on society. When I was younger I used to relish my alone time with my television shows or a good book. In theory I still do. But I often find there's just so much to accomplish in a short period of time that I end up doing two, maybe three things at once. It's not uncommon for me to "watch" a television show while grading papers and say eating lunch. For the most part I've become very good at multitasking, but it makes me sad that something inside makes me feel it has to be that way. Even when I'm relaxing and just watching TV, something inside of me itches to do something else, just because.
5. Procrastination- Anyone who knows me might be surprised to see this make the list as in theory, I am the farthest thing from a typical procrastinator. I know what I have to do and that I have to do it, and I always get it done in time, often with time to spare. But I do know that I have a tendency to put off conversations, schedulings, blogging and grading sometimes by doing other things, probably one of the other vices listed above. Has it ever really effected me? No. Are there are other people out there who suffer from this farther worse than I do? Absolutely. But that doesn't stop me from beating myself up about it.
Beating myself up. Hmmm...maybe I should have made a top six after all. But then again, going on would mean ironically listing a number seven, being long winded at times.
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