Controlling Habits and Diet Coke - A Lesson Learned
The other day, I made a mistake that taught me a good life lesson. As many of you know, I quit drinking Diet Coke about a week and a half ago. The other day I went out to eat with my family and I got medium lemonade with my meal. The restaurant handed me the cup to fill the drink myself. I decided to wait and eat my meal before filling my drink. I finished eating and was reading the daily newspaper. I then decided it was time to fill my drink. I got up and filled the drink and returned to my table. I had been concentrating on the news article I had been reading all the while. I began drinking the drink and continued reading the paper. After a few minutes, I got back up to use the restroom. When I stood, I looked into my cup and realized that, out of habit, I had filled my cup with Diet Coke and had drank about 10oz.
I was very upset with myself and felt I had let myself down. I immediately went back to the fountain, emptied the remaining Diet Coke, rinsed the cup out with water and filled the cup up with Minute Maid Light Lemonade. This was upsetting because I had worked hard to quit Diet Coke.
One thing struck my attention and it has remained with me ever since. When I filled this drink, I filled it completely out of habit. It was so habitual that it did not even take any consciousness to fill the drink. I instinctively knew what tap I "normally" used and which button to push to get the Diet Coke. It was automatic. It was like a combination of muscle memory and spacial acuity in auto pilot. I began to wonder how many habits I have that run my day. There must be hundreds of habits that run each and every day. If I changed these habits, could I become a better businessman? Could new habits make me a better athlete? Could I be richer? Or happier?
I am going to try and identify some time wasting habits and see if I can change them to become more productive. I think it may help me lose more weight, race faster, and maybe even find more business. This is a very interesting mistake I made. Such a simple mistake with such deep-seated consequences.
IRONMAN
© Copyright Ryan Robert Schopke 2006
I was very upset with myself and felt I had let myself down. I immediately went back to the fountain, emptied the remaining Diet Coke, rinsed the cup out with water and filled the cup up with Minute Maid Light Lemonade. This was upsetting because I had worked hard to quit Diet Coke.
One thing struck my attention and it has remained with me ever since. When I filled this drink, I filled it completely out of habit. It was so habitual that it did not even take any consciousness to fill the drink. I instinctively knew what tap I "normally" used and which button to push to get the Diet Coke. It was automatic. It was like a combination of muscle memory and spacial acuity in auto pilot. I began to wonder how many habits I have that run my day. There must be hundreds of habits that run each and every day. If I changed these habits, could I become a better businessman? Could new habits make me a better athlete? Could I be richer? Or happier?
I am going to try and identify some time wasting habits and see if I can change them to become more productive. I think it may help me lose more weight, race faster, and maybe even find more business. This is a very interesting mistake I made. Such a simple mistake with such deep-seated consequences.
IRONMAN
© Copyright Ryan Robert Schopke 2006
posted by Schopke at 5/07/2006 12:59:00 PM
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