Motivation: Bad Habits

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."-Aristotle

Bad habits are destructive. The only way I have found to stay motivated to change them is by playing tricks on myself. Yes, sometimes this requires lying.

“But lying is bad”, you’ll say. “And lying to yourself is even worse!” This is true. But if I don’t lie to her and trick her into behaving, Myself will screw me over every time. She’s a bitch that way. She doesn’t care about my goals, only about what she wants here and now. And she can be relentless.

“I want chocolate.” she says. I say No.

“I really want chocolate!” she says. Again, I say No.

“Give me chocolate NOW!” she screams. “Okay.” I tell her. “You can have some chocolate. But first we’ll drink this cup of herbal tea. Then we’ll see about the chocolate.” When we’ve finished the tea, she might forget about the chocolate, or I might have to lie to her again and say she can have it after we’ve chewed all the flavour out of this piece of gum. But usually I can trick her into being satisfied without the chocolate eventually.

This works with other things too. If she wants to watch too much tv. If she wants a drink. I don’t smoke, but I suppose you could use this trick if you were trying to quit. But mostly I use it for food cravings.

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The main concept for me is that I don’t forbid Myself the things I want. If I really need to indulge, then I can allow it. But I don’t want to fall into the bad habit again just for something to do.

Of course, sometimes she wins and then there is just no living with her. She always wants more.

My lesson for today: It’s a never-ending job keeping Myself under control.