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Overcoming Habits


I suppose if I'm going to have any credibility on this topic, I should start by being completely vulnerable and honest. Here goes nothing!


I have some deeply rooted habits that I would love to transform and I'm going to list them here:


  1. I give more than I allow myself to receive.

  2. I tend toward co-dependence in romantic relationships.

  3. I sometimes smoke cigarettes.

  4. I watch TV every day.

  5. I am an over-thinker.

  6. I am over-responsible.

  7. I get bored easily and jump from one project to another, sometimes without focus.

  8. I don't floss enough.

  9. I eat late at night, often right before bed.

Nine seems like a good number. I could keep going here, but I think you get the point. We all have habits that we would love to overcome. These are the ones that come to mind for me right now, but at any given moment my list might change.


In spite of the fact that I would like to transform these habits, I don't want to misrepresent myself. I do not think that any of these things makes me a bad person or "less-than" in any way. While the phrase "bad habits," might be popping up for you right now, I urge you to take the word "bad" out of it. You have habits. You are a human being. We all have them.


Every single one of the things on my list comes from things I have experienced or learned at some point in my life. In many cases, these are things that burrowed themselves into me before I had a choice in the matter. These things are a current part of my nature in some degree or another, but they come from a place of nurture. Knowing this makes it easier to accept them for what they are- a part of me.


I like who I am. In fact, I LOVE who I am. It took me a long time to be able to say that, but it's true. In spite of my flaws or eccentricities, or this massive list of habits I would like to overcome, I am totally in awe of myself. I sound totally full of myself right now, I know. I am 100% great with that. I have spent a lot of my life being down on myself, and I choose not to live that way anymore.


In the past, I would have looked at my list and allowed myself to be defeated. I would convince myself that because those things are a part of me, they would always be a part of me. My belief in the ability to slowly transform and grow and alter the fabric from which I was woven just didn't exist.


Even now, it's a cha