Choose Your Hard: Habit or Change

I’ve been seeing a meme or a quote on the internet lately: choose your hard.

Basically it says that whatever you are doing, be it eating nothing but sweets and dealing with the effects or going to the gym 5 times a week. It’s all hard, simply choose which one you want to do.

However, I want to hit this from a different angle: new is hard. Change is hard. Decisions are hard. Following habits and patterns is easy.

Starting something new or altering a life-long habit is very hard. We are creatures of habit, and when we stop and try to alter a muscle-memorized habit, it jolts our brain and causes something akin to a shock response. Our brain begins to question everything, and repeatedly attempts to go back to the original habit.

Here’s an example. As a world, we’ve all recently had to re-examine our hand-washing practices. Instead of walking in the house and putting the groceries away directly, we now stop and wash our hands for 20 seconds before touching anything inside our homes. But it’s not that easy. We want to return to our previous normal. How many times have you started to put groceries away, or even gotten as far as getting ready to make dinner before going, “Doh! I forgot to wash my hands.” Or having your family members stop you and ask you to wash your hands?

It has often been said that a habit is made in 28 days. Anyone who has attempted that on any habit knows it takes much longer, haha. During this time the brain is completely rewiring a pathway to the new habit. The decision making process, the time it takes to alter that pathway is what is hard.

Once the new habit is established, it becomes second-nature. It becomes a comfort to you, even a craving. It becomes easy.

Over the past 2 years I have re-evaluated my relationship with coffee. I was the kind of girl that needed coffee before I opened my eyes. One 20 ounce coffee, with a 1/2 cup of creamer, and 2 tablespoons of sugar please. At that same time, I struggled so much with even the thought of trying to drink water. I seemed to drink anything but.

I tried fasting from coffee for several months. Well then I switched to black tea, with just as much sugar if not more. That didn’t help. I tried gulping 20 ounces of water before I brewed my coffee. That was a fight. Finally, I set a simple daily goal. I could have 1 cup of coffee a day, but I also had to drink about 80 ounces of water a day.

With the decision made, (The first hard part), I put my plan into action. I bought 2 20 ounce water bottles that were stainless steel to keep the water cold. I knew I needed 4 of those in a day. Then I downloaded the app Plant Nanny, and set my goal there with reminders every two hours.

Over the following months I evaluated and re-evaluated my plan on how to accomplish this, but I stuck to my goal. Now, 3 months later, I crave water. I now know what it’s like to feel dehydrated, and am sensing what my body needs much better. Now drinking 60-80 ounces is much much easier for me. And that coffee? I really enjoy my 1 coffee for the taste of it, but oftentimes am not even finishing it. because I crave the water more.

The process of changing a habit is difficult but not impossible. There is hope, because it will become easier, and when it does you will be ready for another challenge. Soon you will crave the challenge more than the ease.

What habits are you wanting to tackle? What change are you wanting to make?