Tuesday’s Top Ten: Bad Habits to Break

I receive daily e-mails from God.

No, really. I’m on the mailing list from Neale Donald Walsch, and each weekday, he sends me e-mails that state, “I Believe God Wants You to Know…” Today’s e-mail stated:

“I believe God Wants You to Know that he who eats till he is sick must fast till he is well. This is a Hebrew proverb, and it has to do with a lot more than food. Look to see what behaviors you are indulging in over and over again that are clearly not serving you. Then, go on a ‘bad habit diet.'”

So this week’s top ten is the top ten bad behaviors I indulge over and over that are not serving me. They say it takes 30 days to break a habit, and that tackling and mastering one change in your life will lead to others, so here are ten changes I wish to see in my world: 10. I need to give up second breakfast. I had coffee and Belvita at home. I do not need more coffee and a French pastry at 8:15 a.m. I just don’t. That’s $4 I could spend on books. Or charity events. Or save for a new wardrobe.

9. I need to stop slacking on everyday things. Lift on the days I have to lift. Use the treadmill or recumbent bike on the days it’s too cold or rainy to walk outside. This would also cut back on complaining about lifting, or not going for a walk. When I open my mouth to complain, I’m going to go grab the weights instead. Better to just do it. I also need to write when I say I’m going to write, and not fall prey to time sucks. 

8. I need to stop speaking before I think. I say stupid shit because I grew up in Whitesville, population 2000. I say white things I don’t even know are white things. I say skinny things I don’t even know are skinny things (Except, “Would it kill you to take the fucking stairs?” That, I KNOW, is a skinny thing). 

I say things I don’t even know are offensive until someone has the decency  to tell me, like oriental, or Guinea, or wifebeater. I am quick to condemn white trash, but I am no better if I can’t stop and think before spouting off in playground dialect. I will be better than that. I will do better by thinking before I speak. 7. I need to stop thinking about what might have been, rather than what is. Everything happens for a  reason. I need to trust that those reasons were the right reasons. 6. I need to stop rushing. I’m always in a hurry to get somewhere, to get something done, to get on to something else. I rush to finish projects without researching the details that just don’t seem to fit right. I need to remember that there is always enough time, and that it is better to get it right the first time.

5. Stop worrying. Like that Baz Luhrmann song, “Sunscreen,” 

“Don’t worry about the future / Or worry, But know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum / The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind / The kind that blindside you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday

4. I need to stop being a fucking ditz. I get tangled up inside my head when I’m trying to be social. This usually results in some out-of-body-while-still-in-body experience, like I put my skin on backwards and it doesn’t fit. When that happens, my body doesn’t remember to do body things, like scan my badge before I walk into the door.

3. I will stop taking people for granted. I do not tell the people I love that I love them often enough.  If you got here of your own volition and you don’t know me in person, I love you for being awesome and wanting to read blogs. If you got here because I sent you an e-mail, followed you on Tumblr, dropped a hint on Facebook, or wrote you a little note after Coco Peru made me cry, I count you among my best friends. I love you like family. I don’t ever want to take you for granted. I love you all for following me on this journey. I know I’m a handful.

2. I need to curb my paranoia. The way things are now, if someone forgot to add me to a meeting invite, they must hate me. If someone scheduled a friends’ lunch during the only meeting I have that week, they did it so I would not be able to attend. If this sounds familiar, I KNEW IT! YOU ARE ALL CONSPIRING AGAINST ME!  What I need to remember is that, if everyone actually took the amount of time I think they do to make me miserable, they wouldn’t have time to do anything else. I need to start giving people the benefit of the doubt. Leaving me off an invite is an honest mistake. Scheduling lunch when I’m supposed to meet with my boss…I knew they wanted to ditch me. (See? This is going to be difficult!)

1. I need to end the self-loathing. I used to have this written on a post-it note on my desk: 

“Nobody hates me more than I hate myself.” 

This note was supposed to make me feel better about my haters…

For a long time, I hated everything about me, from my crazy curls to my chalky, barely-there toenails. If I don’t like me, no wonder no one else likes me. My number one priority will be to like me for the next thirty days. I hope that this will happen naturally as I break some of the habits further up the list. What’s on your list of bad habits to break?