Habits

The other day I felt pain in my lower left side. 'What's this all about?' I thought. 'Did I bump into something?' (I do that all the time.) 'Is it the big one!' Talk about fatalistic thinking!

I started to pay attention to the pain - the location, when it hurt most, the type of pain. As I started to analyze it, I began to wonder where this was coming from. It felt almost like a muscle pain, but not quite. I started to pay closer attention to see if I could find out what could be causing this pain.

One evening while watching TV, I noticed that I was lying on my left side over a small space between the cushions where a little support board was very gently poking me. I really hadn't noticed this before.

I noticed, too, that throughout the day as I was talking with clients or staff, I would lean to my left against the arm rest of my chair, pushing into it. It was a habit of which I was unaware, that is, until I felt the pain.

Sometimes our habits go unnoticed until we get a bruise or we get damaged. We don't realize it or we choose to ignore the signals. And, then, all of a sudden, one day it rears its ugly head: "Hey! I am here!"

This is what happens when we don't pay attention to the little things we do. All of a sudden, it seems, things show up.

Not so. Maybe we simply were not aware of what we were doing. Or, perhaps, we were denying or ignoring the evidence. We developed habit "A" and now "B" is the result.

Sadly, it isn't usually the habits that serve us that we ignore; it is the ones that can hurt us.

Everything is a habit. Success is a habit. Quitting is a habit. Self-sabotaging is a habit.

PAY ATTENTION....Don't let little negative habits sneak up on you. Catch them early and make changes. Remember: "We first make our habits, and then our habits make us." - John Dryden

~ Dennis