Habits

Earlier this morning, I had a sudden urge to visit the barber shop around the corner to have a haircut. I had one just about 4 weeks back but then humidity in Bangalore warranted another round of having the locks chopped. While I was getting my haircut (and an insanely good head massage with Navratan oil), I suddenly began to think about my habits.

habitˈhabɪt/

noun1.

a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

"he has an annoying habit of interrupting me"

Was I a man of habits? I wondered. There seemed to be no binary answer to the question. I was confused but after coming back home and thinking about it, I can safely say that I am not a man of habit. Rather, looking back at my life, I don't seem to have formed any habit that has lasted for more than a couple of months or 4-5 years at the maximum and that was the habit I developed of devoting 2-3 hours of my day to playing tennis back between 1990-1995. Most "habits" developed later had a span of maybe a few months at tops. Note that I have used the term in quotes to signify that my definition of habit doesn't even fit into the standard definition because I don't have a regular settled tendency by any stretch of the imagination and the only habit I have seems to be procrastination.

Most people would say not having a habit is bad. Is it? I don't think so. Would be good to have healthy habits? Yes of course. Is my life worse off because of my lack of developing habits? No. Could it be better off? Yes, I think so.

Which brings me to the battle that I keep fighting with my mental lethargy. I have to figure out some way to win this battle before I lose the war.