Are You A Creature of Habit?

Yesterday, I was reminded that we are creatures of habit. What habits have you created? Do they serve you well or do you wish you’d never created them?

A few weeks ago there had been a flurry of roadwork going on in my hometown. (If you’re a Burlington resident, you know exactly what I mean)! Streets were being scraped to make way for new pavement. It was rough driving there for awhile until the new pavement was laid. Wow, what a difference it made, and I came to appreciate something I’d taken for granted all these years: good roadways.

Interestingly, at the intersection of Main and Maple, a traffic flow change had been made. For years, we had been driving up to the intersection with the right lane giving us the option of turning right or going straight; the left lane was for left turns only. Now, according to the signs and painted arrows, the right lane was for right turns only; if you wanted to go straight or turn left, you needed to be in the left lane.

So yesterday, as I stood at the corner waiting to cross, I noticed that 4 out of 6 cars drove straight through the intersection, in the wrong lane. One of them even did this as a car was driving straight through in the correct lane; fortunately, the driver, noticing his error, slowed and let the other go through before he continued down Main Street behind him. I cringed a bit inside, hoping they wouldn’t crash. As I shared this with a friend, she noted, “It’s only a matter of time before somebody crashes.”

That’s when I realized that we really are creatures of habit. No doubt these drivers, just like me, had been driving down Main Street for years in the old traffic pattern. Even with a sign several yards before the intersection that warned of the change, many (if not most) drivers were continuing to go the same route they’d been going.

Does that sound familiar? Are you a creature of habit? Have you been doing things, saying things, believing things simply because you’d done it, said it, believed it for years?

I challenge you to ask yourself, do these actions, words and beliefs serve you well? Or do you find yourself on a downward spiral, ready to ‘crash’ at any minute?

Because of a traffic pattern change, and my own tendency to swerve into the wrong lane, I’ve asked myself that same question. What am I doing, out of habit, that I should change? What am I saying that I should stop saying? What am I believing? And do those beliefs have a solid foundation or should they be changed?

Good or bad, we are creatures of habit. Let’s make sure that you—and I—follow our good habits and rid ourselves of the ones that drag us down before we find ourselves ‘crashing.’

Habitually yours,

Jean