After a swim the other day, I walked into the change room where a fellow was showering prior to heading out to do some laps. He moved from the middle showerhead to the one on the side saying “Oh, I’m in your shower”. I did reply they were all the same and it didn’t matter but how indeed we can be creatures of habit. I was actually a bit embarrassed that he moved, wondering if my world has narrowed so much that I am so locked into these certain patterns and rituals. I will admit after a couple decades here at the Community Complex, I do have my favourite chair in the lunchroom where we all gather to share meals and staff have jokingly come to recognize if they want to push buttons, they might get the new person or a visitor to sit there at lunch. Hey, I like to think I’m bigger than that so once the blinding homicidal rage has subsided (I’m kidding - don’t tell HR!), I have on occasion, sat elsewhere and gained this new perspective of the people at the table and observed the other side of their face.
Nevertheless, we are creatures, and as being such, we have habits – no different than the dog running around the house checking things when you first let them out each morning or the squirrel that mindlessly steals all our walnuts and stashes them who knows where each year. Habits are what frees us up to focus on more complex matters; for instance, we probably all can prep breakfast as mindlessly as the squirrel – get the bowl and spoon, grab the milk knowing the fridge door will close just right as you grab the cereal. We have all driven to work on autopilot one time or another just as we cruise up and down the shopping aisles at the store, flipping the usual items into our cart.
We all have hundreds of habits – some good, some not so much. I know we get the stink eye from a trainer or two in the gym because we do the same workout all the time; knowing full well we should be changing it up but wearing it like those old flannel pajamas –it’s so comfortable but it could be so much more beneficial if we took the time to break out of that habit. Sometimes we let jobs or relationships fall into autopilot; cruising along but hit an air pocket or lose an engine and it can straighten you up in your seat, especially if you have become so habituated that you have no tools to handle a change in a situation.
While changing a habit can be difficult, it can have benefits – for instance, we changed to regularly swimming and working out which was, and still can be hard at 5:30 in the morning. Some mornings as I drive mindlessly to our early swim, I wistfully reflect on the days where I had that extra hour but knowing full well we are healthier for it. Sometimes trading one habit for another has its benefits, much like seeing someone from another point of view at the lunchroom table.