“I’m Here for the Habit”

“I’m only here for the habit.”

“It’s all about the habit.”

“This is for the habit”.

“Just do the habit”.

That last one was my mantra this morning. I didn’t have time to do a proper workout, or spend as much time as I wanted on my writing, and had to just go with my hair frizzy. Literally, over and over, I said “Just do the habit” this morning, really quite broken record-ish.

-I repeated this mantra when I wanted to stay in bed instead of turning off alarm and starting my Monday. Do you ever just ignore the alarm dinging away? I do, I actually pretend it doesn’t bother me and that it will go away… I tried that, and all I got was a salty mood out of it. So I gave up ignoring and said over and over “I am only getting out of bed for the habit” as a way to quiet that woman who was complaining incessantly about her lack of blanket and pillow. But I did get out of bed.

-I repeated it again, about 10 times when I realized it was 18 degrees outside and I only had 10 minutes to run. It meant I spent more time getting dressed than actually applying feet to pavement. But I kept repeating it as I tied my shoes and leashed up the dog. I ran 3/4 of a quick mile and the dog peed mid-leap over the snow banks. But the point is, we did it!

-“It is all about the habit” I kept saying when I realized I had 17 minutes to write my free write and eat lunch today because yes, I had messed around during the previous 13 minutes of my lunch break. I still wrote though!

I am a classic putzer. I can putz around for two hours before work begins. This means I may wake up at 6 am, but will look at the clock at 7:55 am un-showered, un-dressed, un-brushed, and unprepared for the 8 am Zoom meeting. So I keep a scarf and jacket on my chair along with hair goop to try to flatten the frizzies. (And I promise myself that I will work on the habits).

It is a daily struggle against the chitter-chatter in my brain. But this morning, I am happy to say, the broken record mantras worked! I’m developing my mini-habits, as my post about habits and rewards describes. And broken records still work!

PS- 3 days later, on Wednesday, still doing my record broken mantra, and had time to run, shower AND write before my 7:30 mtg. So mantras help us improve, too 😀.