Letting go of habits...

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kccc
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Letting go of habits...

Post by kccc » Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:24 pm

I like to take exercise classes, but the ones I go to often have long breaks between one class and the next. So, over the holidays (a particularly long stretch), I developed the 15-minutes of exercise habit.

Exercise classes have started now, and I've upped my routine a bit. For a while, I was holding on the the 15 minutes... but. It makes my morning more hectic. It was great during the break, but feels unnecessary at this point.

So I'm going to drop it - at least on days I do any other exercise.

A part of me feels relieved, and a part regretful. It was hard work to create this habit, and now I'm throwing it away? On the other hand, it's served its purpose. I'll come back to it during the next break.

Anyone else have thoughts about letting go of habits?

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:05 pm

This can be tough. There is a huge investment and value in good habits you've built. But sometimes, like say a software program that did it's job well for many years and is suddenly rendered obsolete, you do have to let them go. On the bright side, in both cases, the "programming expertise" you gained during the course of building your habit/program remain. You are still left with something valuable that you can reapply elsewhere.

Be careful about jumping to new, untested technology. Not everyone considers Vista an improvement over XP, for example. You know your 15 minutes work. There's a risk in pursuing something different.

But I think in this case you might be able to adapt your habit rather than replace it. Why not just keep the minimum 15 minutes a day, but have your exercise class count against that? Besides resulting in some extra exercise now, you can also seamlessly transition between classes and breaks.

Reinhard

kccc
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Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 am

Post by kccc » Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:43 pm

Hm... good way of thinking of it.

My exercise program isn't new, exactly - it's my "default," just cranked up with one extra session per week. The 15 minutes was "new," as filler when the exercise classes weren't there.

I think I will continue to do the 15 minutes on days I don't have class, so there's a daily baseline. (Up to a minimum of 5 total days exercise per week, which is what I was officially doing.)

And when I missed class last week due to travel, I relied on the 15 minutes. So, I don't want to let go entirely.

I have been thinking of it as 15 minutes in the morning... if I just think of it as 15 minutes whenever, that could work for me.

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