My Tiny Habits

Participating in the tiny habits program has not necessarily helped me adopt new habits, but it has been helping me create the foundation that I need to do so. It almost seems too obvious, but the process of identifying either one-time or multiple-time habits in my day-to-day life is expanding my paradigm of self-awareness. It was as if before I had selected a handful of these habits to pay attention to and then used that as my claim for knowing myself. Since I began the exercise of identifying all of my habits throughout the day, I am now beginning to realize a lot more about myself; for better or worse.

This process has allowed me to approach myself a bit more like I would a close friend or my brothers; a little more blunt in identifying unhealthy or annoying habits. For example, recognizing that I spend another twenty minutes lying around in bed in an attempt to avoid actually waking up just annoys me now. Why in the world do I not drink any water after I ride my bike? Why do I allow myself to complain about my sore back when I don’t stretch nearly as often as I should?

This almost excruciating insight is actually motivating me. The more I see and recognize a habit I dislike or become aware of habits I want to have, the more I am perturbed by the situation. This technique appears to be substantiated by Prochaska and Velicer’s transtheoretical model of health behavior change. I’m essentially moving from Contemplation to Preparation by this self-analysis.

I have yet to have the same insight into what has actually been motivating many of my habits. As Duhigg discovered his actual desire for social exposure within the cookie scenario, it appears to me that I still seem to simply want the cookie. I struggle with identifying my underlying reasons for why it is that I do what I do, especially if that habit is unhealthy.

For example, I prepare way too much food and then I eat all of it. Sometimes this food is considered unhealthy but most of the time it is pretty nutritious. Regardless of the health of the meal, the fact is, I have a habit of overeating. Perhaps it’s the fact that I am in relatively good shape thanks to an impeccable metabolism that I do nothing about this. But even when I recognize that I do not need to prepare and consume food in this manner, I cannot determine why I continue to do it. I’ve contemplated this for awhile now and I have come up with a few possible reasons. The first is that I am hungry when I prepare a meal so my perceived hunger leads me to preparing a disastrously huge serving. But this doesn’t explain why I eat all of it because sometimes I continue even after I recognize I am full. My other hypothesis is that I tend to be lazy and want to minimize dishes. It sounds silly but I put a lot of effort in avoiding dishes, all the way down to doing most of my chopping on the plate I will later eat from. So in order to avoid storage container dishes, I eat all of my food.

I unfortunately do not yet have greater reasons for my habits, however, I have still acquired another tool for my toolkit. This mystery keeps me interested and aware; and my only fear is that I will identify what I need to identify and move on to the next puzzle without taking action. Perhaps the longer the mystery lasts, the longer I will spend working and considering these habits and the more likely my behaviors will begin to change.