Building Habits
I have been thinking a fair bit lately about how we build habits. It comes up every year around New Year's, partly because I have been working for a while to develop permanent behaviour changes that I post about here. Some have gone well, and some - not so much.
One of those "not so much" habits has been to take action about litter. I couple of years ago, I read about someone resolving to pick up three pieces of trash a day. I thought "I can do that!". Wrong. I would do it for a day or so, then forget for months on end, or decide a piece was too big or disgusting to carry, or the trash bin was too far away. But suddenly this month it seems to have clicked. I find myself picking up 1-5 pieces of trash every day. Sometimes I do it twice a day, as I walk to and from my bus stop. I'm not ready to call it a habit yet, but at least I am much further down the road towards becoming the crazy lady in my neighbourhood.
One of those "not so much" habits has been to take action about litter. I couple of years ago, I read about someone resolving to pick up three pieces of trash a day. I thought "I can do that!". Wrong. I would do it for a day or so, then forget for months on end, or decide a piece was too big or disgusting to carry, or the trash bin was too far away. But suddenly this month it seems to have clicked. I find myself picking up 1-5 pieces of trash every day. Sometimes I do it twice a day, as I walk to and from my bus stop. I'm not ready to call it a habit yet, but at least I am much further down the road towards becoming the crazy lady in my neighbourhood.