Last week I made a shocking discovery.

Fruit is great in hot weather.

I know, revolutionary insight but if you looked at my habits, this idea was a real shock.

I don’t have anything against fruit and eat it when offered, but I just don’t choose fruit or go for it. Instead I’m more likely to snack on a piece of chocolate or sandwich. But during this heatwave I realised that fruit was clearly the more refreshing choice.

And that made me think about my habits.

I know it’s not great, but …

There are a lot of my habits which don’t match my intentions or goals.

The fruit one is one small example.

It’s such a small thing that could be corrected with a minor lifestyle change (buy more fruit in the shop, keep sweets at home, choose fruit at snack time) and yet I wasn’t doing it. Why?

Well I wasn’t really thinking about that habit.

So I decided to make a list of the bad habits I have (in obsidian of course). Here’s a sample:

  • not flossing every day
  • drinking more coffee than I’d like
  • snacking on chocolate during the day

And once I made that list, the alternatives were pretty obvious:

  • Floss when after brushing your teeth
  • drink water
  • Eat fruits instead of chocolate

Not every bad habit is so simple or unentrenched, but some are.

And guess what, just making the list has helped me change these habits.

I’m still not perfect, but they’ve far lesser.

More tricky habits

There are a couple of bad habits in my list that are more sticky.

Not least of which is “being impatient with people”.

While it’s not something that just magically changes, I’m glad it’s on this list. Unless I acknowledge this is an issue, I won’t be willing to change it. And now it’s there, I can plan for change.

Not magic, but maybe worth a go

A lot of good coaching and therapy starts with awareness.

Sometimes, that’s enough.

And sometimes we need to do more. But either way, maybe making a bad habit list will help you with some of your bad habits that you know about, but do nothing over, or even ones you are less aware of.

If you give it a go, let me know what you think.