I don’t know if I believe in gateway drugs, but I do know that I believe in gateway habit success and failure.
When a habit is new, comfort starts me down that path.
This week I got really comfortable with eating takeout again. This didn’t happen in one fell swoop. U didn’t realize how fast things could change. One day I was cooking, and the next I noticed I ordered takeout 3 days in a row. This wasn’t immediate, but I got comfortable each step. Here they are, in the order they happened.
- I stopped cooking during the week and= I started grocery shopping less.
- The two things above eventually led to rediscovering seamless
- I started going to the local fast food joint.
- Didn’t have stuff, because I forgot to grocery shop. The fast food place was convenient, and on my way home. I noticed I didn’t really like the taste, but it was comfortable and took no effort.
- I rediscovered Seamless.
- I recognized that fast food sucks, but since I liked to convenience, why not go back to seamless. Better quality food and I feel better, just expensive.
[bctt tweet=”I don’t know if I believe in gateway drugs, but I do know that I believe in gateway habit success and failure.”]
And just like that, I was down the path of convenience and comfort, enjoying my seamless meals while watching Netflix. These were two things that I told myself I wanted to scale back on, and engage in moderation. I didn’t realize it before, but these things don’t happen immediately, but over a time period. But, like most things, this isn’t bad unless I let it be. It serves as a lesson to always keep the habit up, even if its boring, or automate so I have no choice.
Habit gain or loss is a series of steps, each one leading to success or failure. Consistency matters, but also, the ability to see where we go wrong and fix it can get us back on the horse.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 