I was leaving the house this morning at around 6 a.m. Tallulah, my step-daughter, asked me to leave the gate open. She would be right behind me leaving for school.
As I’ve done often recently, I said, “Will do.”
She followed with, “Yeah, right.”
You see, Tallulah makes this request all the time. In the two minutes between her asking and me getting to the gate, it’s already forgotten.
Or is it? Let me explain myself. She’s only been driving a short period. She just got her license. So I’m used to doing the same thing every morning. When I leave the gate, I close the gate.
This, my friends, is what we call a habit. I’ve had this habit over five years. Now, all of a sudden, I’m asked to do something else.
Although I’m asked repeatedly to do it, and one minute before it should be done, I only get it right about 60 percent of the time. This morning was no exception.
Tallulah quickly texted me as I was on my way to my first client. She let me know that I had done it again.
I told you that to tell you this. That got me thinking about the client I was getting ready to see. He’s a smart guy, a good business man, a great husband and father. Yet he has habits too. We all do.
It doesn’t matter how many times I tell him to stay away from sugars and grains, he always goes back as if he had forgotten the conversation we had between his workout and breakfast.
Are habits good? They can be. But they can also be bad.
Ever since the podcast started to become popular, I’ve been talking to people around the planet. It turns out, humans are the same everywhere. We have great habits, like wiping our butts and brushing our teeth. And we have bad habits, like smoking and eating unhealthy foods.
So here’s what I’m going to try to do. I’m going to break one bad habit in my life, and try to add one good habit.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow I will remember to keep the gate open.
