All Habits are Bad Habits

In the distance, the sound of James Clear sharpening his pitchfork can be heard.

We all have a comfort food (plural, if you’re me).

We all have a dish we adore (Robert Pattinson, if you’re me). We all have a favourite snack and restaurant and cuisine. We all have these staples, these regularly appearing, frequent meals in our lives. They’re familiar and comfortable and understood. And we all love a little familiarity, right? They’re great!

But also: they’re toxic.

In the distance, several billion people can be heard spitting out their favourite foods for fear of being poisoned (bold of me to assume I have more than three readers here, but whatever).

Much like our food choices, our meal preferences, the tastes and flavours we favour because they remind us of simpler, more reassuring times — all aspects of our life are tainted with familiarity. With routine and ritual and regularly scheduled activities and behaviours. They’re standard practise. They’re habit. And yeah, I say tainted because, without realising it, that’s what they do. They seep into our bloodstreams and take a hold of our life. Upon first impression, habits are great. They’re friggin’ ace, in fact. They’re useful, understandable, universal. They’re present in all of lives in some way and a lot of the time, things just would not be complete without them. So yeah, habits are top tier. Assuming you’re only indulging in the tiers of that one specific cake.

Because the thing is, life is comprised of billions of cakes.

In fact no, life is an entire damn buffet of cakes. Of cottage pies. Of chilli beef noodles and sweet potato tagines and lemon meringue tarts. Life is every flavour ever. And your habitual eating, your singular serving, your sameoldsameold dinner plan?

It’s ruining your life.

There is No Set Menu at a Buffet

Doing the same thing every day is like attending this buffet and only having a plate of potato wedges.

Sure, they’re familiar. Sure, they’re a classic. They’re exactly what you know and have come to love. I get it. But. By loading up on only those, time and time again, you’re missing out on everything else. There are so many flavour combinations and taste sensations out there, just waiting to be sampled. Ingredients you will never have heard of before. Dishes you could only ever dream of. And yeah, okay, if you love your wedges so wholeheartedly, if they make you happy, mouthful after mouthful, then keep at it. Far from me to discourage overeating, you know? (After all, I put the ew into chew. Because my initials are EW but also because it can be kind of gross when you catch me sat there in my pants, biscuit crumbs accumulating in my lap). But if they don’t, if they’ve become plain and boring and tasteless, then you need to take action. You did not attend this restaurant to settle for bland and dull. Life is not meant to be mundane nor repetitive. If you are feeling anything other than raw, salivating joy, then it’s time.

To try something new.

And the same applies to your regular life.

Following the same plan each and every day, adhering to your meticulously designed structure and never straying from the path — that’s no bueno, my friend (unless, of course, you have a couple Kinder Bueno’s in your pocket. In which case hold on, I’m on my way). If you get too ingrained in your routine it becomes autopilot and it removes all the thought from the process. That’s not living. That’s barely existing. That’s pretty much the same as strapping a corpse to a skateboard and shoving it down a hill. There’s movement, sure. But no life.

So mix it up a little. Do something different. Live freely, live curiously, live with intent. Try new things, no matter how trivial they might seem. They don’t have to be as dramatic as uprooting your life to Florida to live your days as a Disney princess. Simply change your phone background. Grab a coffee from that Turkish cafe down the road. Have dinner, for breakfast. Message a cute boy that you’ve never met. Adopt a dolphin.

Why?

Why not?

Is living — happily, lovingly, fully — not enough?

Find What You Like

Just in case you need a little extra prompting; trying more means you will, you know, try more. Learn more. Experience more. And, subsequently, find more things that you like.

Trying new dishes is a way for you to discover flavours and foods and feelings things that you’ve not known of before. And yeah, okay, I see you waving at me over there, yeah you, you can sit back down now (in the distant back left of the auditorium some random bloke sits back down after frantically trying to flag my attention. I already know what he’s going to say). You’re right; you will encounter more things you don’t like as a result of exposing yourself to larger quantities of tastes. It’s simple maths really. The more you do, the more you’ll discover, the more things you will not be a big fan of.

But finding things you dislike is so much better than not finding anything at all.

It just means you can scratch them off the list, and move on to what you do like. To what you love. Because the same principal applies there, too. Never wolfing down a plateful (and the rest) of a bangin’ three bean chilli for fear that you won’t like at least one of those three beans is silly. If that’s the case, just swap it out for a chickpea and get back to business. Don’t miss out on the world because you’re afraid. Don’t let your tentative beliefs or misgivings about the future stop you from living in the present. And for the love of cod — don’t get so mindlessly trapped in your own damn routine that you don’t even realise what you’re missing out on.

Because fear and worry are easy to overcome. They stride up dressed exactly like criminals (Donald Trump face mask and some kind of duffel-bag). It’s lack of awareness that creeps up on you, silent and muscular, offering a gentle smile that perfectly compliments it’s three piece suit, and lures you away into the night.

But don’t worry. Because switching up your routine is a surefire way of avoiding his trap. And it can be manageable. It can be easy. Hell, it is. You don’t have to begin by redefining your entire identity. Just implement a few tiny changes where you can, and you’ll see. Here. Let me show you.

Trying Something Old, But in a New Way

You don’t have to dive head first into the NEW end of the pool. Begin by dipping your toe in, then wading your way on over to it.

Try something old, but in a new way. Do something you always do, but come at it from a different angle. Here’s a couple examples for you (and the phone number to my local dessert shop in case you’re feeling generous):

• Instead of scheduling your day to the very minute, ease yourself in by planning your day hourly.
• Instead of having toast with marmalade for breakfast each morning, have a bagel with peanut butter.
• Instead of showering first, answering emails second — type out that passive aggressive email of yours then stop mid-sentence, zip off to the bathroom and wait for the more insulting, offensive and abusive slurs to come to mind whilst you blissfully lather coconut scented suds into your hair — then go edit and send.
• Sit on the opposite end of the sofa.
• Use a different brand of baked beans.
• 0121 308 6660.
• Argue with your boyfriend in Spanish.
• Quit smoking and get addicted to joy, instead.
• Paint your keyboard gold.
• Ask to borrow salt from your neighbour.
• Do that thing, you know that thing, that thing you’ve been so desperate to do but have been consistently putting off because you’re afraid you might mess it up and suck. Well you just might. Until of course, you get past that point and then you don’t. I say: go do it.
• Go ginger.

And yeah, trying these new things might turn out to be less fun than you expected. All these new foods at your disposal, sure, you might not like everything you nibble. But don’t forget — you can still scoop on a side serving of potato wedges alongside that enticing new hoisin duck wrap of yours. Trying new things doesn’t mean abolishing all the old. It means integrating and adapting. It means evolving. Have your normal routines but also intersperse things you’ve never done before into your day, too. I’m not saying you have to quit your routine, cold turkey. If snacking on cold turkey is your thing, then hey keep at it! Just serve it up alongside something fresh, something new, something sizzling.

You see, there are numerous ways you can implement a little variety into your existing day-to-day world. You can wean yourself in as fast or as slow as you prefer — it doesn’t matter the speed at which you change your life.

It just matters that you get moving.

The Buffet Closes Eventually

Whilst a 24 hour, open-all-week buffet is my very Dream™— it’s also a poor business decision. It’s unsustainable, financially unfeasible and honestly, I think that would strip the fun out of it a little.

But as we all know, that isn’t the case. The buffet isn’t open forever. Closing time will come, the kitchen will shut, food will stop being served and the lights will fade to black. And then that’s it. Your time is up. Who knows what you might have missed out on if you didn’t make the most of the opportunity? Your repeat journeys from your table to the wedges and back — not even so much as glancing towards the candy-floss machine — meant that you essentially wasted your trip. Might as well have bought yourself a bag of frozen chips from Aldi and stayed at home. Because otherwise, what’s the point?

Life, much like a buffet, exists to provide you with an abundance of opportunity so that you can design your very own perfect meal. Your very own perfect existence. You get to sample and trial and discover. You get to learn and expand (mind and waistline) and experience. You get to taste test all possible outcomes until you find exactly what’s right for you. And you will.

But you won’t — unless you do. That make sense?

If you remain trapped in your self-inflicted structure, rigid and bound, you’ll never know what freedom tastes like (typically cheesy. Maybe with a pinch of smoky paprika). Because sticking to your habits too much, too fiercely — regardless of whether they’re productive or minor — is dangerous. It’s bad. An excess portion size of anything can choke you (not that I in anyway let that stop me from inhaling three packets of digestives at any one time). Don’t let your own habits be your undoing.

So open your mind, my friend. Open your mouth, wide and willing and eagerly. Let it all in. Spit out the crap you don’t enjoy and savour what you do. Try new things and flourish into who you’re meant to be. You’re not a singular ingredient, your a chef’s choice dish. You’re a fan favourite. You’re a delicacy.

So serve yourself a big ol’ plateful of life and get stuck in.