Being creatures of habit is tough. Once we develop patterns
of behavior, whether they serve us well or not, it takes determined effort to
break routine in order to do something different.
It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. You know from experience, that it’s just as
hard to get a 5 year old to eat something they are not familiar with as it is
to get a 45 year old to do the same thing. And, nowadays, if you really need to
develop better habits and routines, it seems like you need a professional
coach, support team, mentor, and a 90-day boot-camp to accomplish your desired
goals. Do you find yourself wondering, is all that really necessary? How and why do we find ourselves in such dire situations that we can’t help ourselves any more?
We are told that “it’s all a matter of choice.” You have to
choose to be healthy, eat healthy, live happy, and work well. To be honest,
that’s a whole lot of “choice” that I don’t have time to make! If we believe
everything we do is a choice, and we’re setting this example for our children
to follow, are we doing ourselves and them a disservice?
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One example, and I find myself struggling with this, is the
childhood obesity epidemic. As a parent, I have to turn the mirror upon myself,
and ask, “Did I allow this to happen to my child? Why did I ever offer choices
to my children between what is good to eat and what is not? Why did I allow
them to choose between playing inside versus playing outside?” Why? Because it
was easier for me, that’s why. That’s a simple and honest answer. I don’t need
to find anywhere else to place blame. It’s not the corn industry’s fault, or
fast food restaurants, or video games, it was just me taking the easy way and
expecting my children to make better choices for themselves than I did. And in
the end, I don’t think my children needed to make these particular choices and
suffer the consequences at such young ages.
So why is trying something new so hard? Because sometimes it’s
not easy, it’s not convenient, and it’s not fun. Now I know, however, the
better lesson my children could have learned was that there are times we just
have to do things, whether we want to or not, because it’s the right thing to do.
And instilling that habit from the beginning would have been much easier to
deal with than trying to break our bad habits now.