One thing I've learned after living for 69 years is that much of life seems to driven by routines. When I first started having the local daily newspaper delivered in the morning, for example, I didn't even know if I'd read it. I hit the ground running in the morning and I'm usually on the computer before I've digested my breakfast. But it didn't take long before reading the paper while I sipped my morning tea became a routine and that was two years ago. I wake up, make the bed, do some stretches, and open the door to pick up the paper. We're creatures of habit. Which can be a bad thing, but doesn't have to be.
Before I was diagnosed diabetic, I didn't think much about my habits one way or the other unless they became a major problem. I remember when I realized I had a problem with alcohol and other drugs. It was a bad day at Black Rock and required a rigorous commitment to a major life change to address. But under most circumstances, I was healthy, wealthy, and wise (as my mother used to say whether or not it was entirely true). So it never occurred to me to think consciously about my decision-making.
Like most people, I suspect, I followed a specific routine to get ready for work and took the same route to get there every day without fail. I tended to order my current favorites at restaurants, wear the same color lipstick, and lean toward reading books by authors I always enjoyed. And by and large, I still do. The difference is that now I pay attention to where those routines take me and, when they're not in my best interest, I change them.
Before diabetes made me give conscious thought to some of my habits, I didn't realize how ephemeral they are and how easily they can be broken. They only have us in a stranglehold when we're addicted (an obvious problem) or when we haven't learned how habits work. We may be "creatures of habit." But I now know I can decide what those habits will be.
Reading the newspaper over my morning breakfast isn't bad for me, so I've let it become a habit. But when I let a busy semester gut my exercise regimen last spring, I used the summer months to re-wire my daily habits to include exercise four to five times per week (no matter what) and by the time the fall semester rolled around, I was going to the park to run or booting up my aerobics DVD without giving it a second thought. It had become a habit.
It's my understanding that you can "break" a habit by not doing it for 21 days. I prefer to think of the process as "making" a (different) habit instead. I don't just stop doing something. I replace it with something else. It takes the same period of time and feels better. I'm not "losing" something I want. I'm gaining something I want more. Do I want whipped cream on my coffee? Not as much as I want to avoid diabetic complications that are likely to put me in the hospital or kill me.
My life is still full of habits and routines. But now that I've gotten the hang of it, I touch base with them consciously on a regular basis and change them as I please. In fact, it's gotten down right easy to do. You might even say, changing habits has become a habit of mine.
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