Changing Our Circumstances, Adjusting Our Habits

You know those New Year’s Resolutions most of us make – and usually break? We vow to eat less, drink less, smoke less, exercise more, adopt a positive attitude, take time to “smell the roses,” and then we end up doing none of those things.

We talk about people, mostly others, who are “creatures of habit.” In fact, that definition applies to all of us. It’s more than us having habits. In fact, we ARE those habits. What we regularly DO is WHO WE ARE.

In my previous piece about living in Ambridge, PA – or places something like Ambridge, a town of about 7300 people – I discussed how just every place I want to go is nearby. In fact, most places where I want to be are within walking distance.

I walk a lot, and so does my wife. If I lived in the Pittsburgh suburbs, where getting anywhere quickly demands getting into the car, I wouldn’t walk much at all. For example, if “the mall” is five miles away, I’m not going to walk there.

My “habit” is to a couch potato – and a car potato. Living in the suburbs – or residing “far from town” – reinforces my bad habits. If it takes me half the day to get somewhere, I’m either not going or driving.

I mentioned the places that are close in Ambridge. They range from the post office, to the library, to the doctor’s office, to the bank, to the drug store, to the grocery store, to the bus stop, to the pizzeria(s).

If they’re close – say, within a 5-10 minute walk – I’ll hoof it. If they’re not, I won’t.

In short, my habits are a product of my circumstance. If I’m in a tightly-knit community that encourages walking – my main form of exercise – I’ll do so.

A couple of years ago, I asked a woman in her early 40s how she stayed so thin – in fact, she had a “normal” weight. She thought for a minute and said, “Oh, I just don’t buy very much food!”

Bingo! If we buy lots of nice fatty foods, what do we do with them? In fact, we eat them. That is, we eat what we have around. If we don’t have it, then we stay nice and trim.

"If you build it, they will come," as they say in The Field of Dreams. If we buy it -- junk foods -- we will eat it.

What we do depends that is on our circumstances. In fact, we get to choose those circumstances. And the choices we make determine which habits we practice.

In summary, because I don’t have to drive, I don’t. Because driving is unnecessary, I get lots of exercise. I’ve set myself up not for failure in habit modification but rather for success.

WHY CAN'T WE BREAK BAD HABITS?

"If you're around long enough, you make just enough mistakes tp make it possible to learn a few things." (Me)

I'll be writing this weekend on why it is so hard to "fix" our mistakes. We've all heard about "creatures of habit," and if we look in our mirrors, we'll find out who those creatures are. Is it possible to break bad habits -- we all have them?

Yes, it is, but it requires changing the circumstances that keep us doing things we wish we didn't.

The problem is that our habits -- good and bad -- are WHO WE ARE. They're the way we do things because we can't really see any alternatives. (More Tomorrow)

Please read the other columns below.