Small things, small changes
October 9th
This morning I got a haircut like I do every 4 weeks. There is not much up there on top, but I don’t need to shave my head yet and get it over with. Walking out from the barbers, I took a good look at my reflection, and I realized I look good. Not just everyday presentable, but actually good. My mood lifted immediately as I was strutting home. Such a small thing, mostly unnoticeable, but here today it made me happy and pleased with myself and everything around me.
I also noticed that over last month I made some (small?) changes in my everyday behavior without really trying and with no special effort from my side.
First — about a month ago, I gave up drinking sugary, fizzy sodas. I thought about it for a long time, as it is very unhealthy, but there always was some excuse not to do it just yet. I guess those drinks are just as addictive, as so many processed foods. And one day doing my shopping, on purpose I didn’t buy any. I stuck to drinking plain filtered water, seltzer water, tea, and coffee. And it’s been a month before I realized I am doing it and not even thinking about it. That part of getting healthier was easy (I also lost another 1.5 kilos last month without even trying).
Second — for years I had my websites where I would go every day to check the news and commentary on current events. Of course, those websites were in line with my political and social views, and I just abhorred different takes on the news. And of course, I noticed that those websites (even while pretending to be factual) are biased in the same way as those on the opposite side of the spectrum. I kept using them because I guess those biases were familiar to me and I could live with them. Again, about a month ago, I completely changed that habit. I started using news aggregators where each event gets several links from different points of view with no ideological commentary (that I can easily provide myself). I thought it would be hard to change something that was already like my second nature, but I was wrong — it was so easy that I just noticed that I was doing it with no second thoughts.
In conclusion — change can be easy, but we don’t know it unless we try. There are always plenty of excuses why not and why not now. Once it is started, we can change our behavior for the better and that can lead to better habits with only minor effort. And that means that I will try to quit smoking, no more excuses, and stalling, only the first step is needed now.
