Breaking Old Habits

From this to this






It was a busy day in the gym today; lots of sweat and puffing and new faces as well. I remarked on this to Amanda at the front desk who replied

"By March we'll be back to the regulars."

Ah! An astute observation.

How hard it is to follow through on the good resolutions of  December 31st, to break old habits and build new ones.

A few thoughts then on the breaking and building of habits.

Think of Mary. She was a member of staff at the school where I taught in Liverpool.

She was a beautiful young lady but was plagued by a habit of nail biting. She held her coffee mug in hands that were hidden by the sleeves of her sweater. Every so often her fingers would appear and she would gnaw down more of her finger nails.

One day I asked Mary to show me her hands. With embarrassment she did so. I then told her I would help her quit chewing her nails. She remarked that she had tried everything including painting them with poison, which she had licked off!

Well, without ado, I began wrapping her nails in tape and left only her right thumb to chew on.

I told her I would keep my eye on her and that, being a good catholic, she should pray to Our Lord.

Lo, in two weeks she was busy filing and manicuring her nine new nails while she looked with disgust at her ugly right thumb.

That was that. She wrapped up her right thumb, filed her nine new nails and in a month she was drumming on the staff room table with the prettiest nails in Liverpool.

In our next post we'll look at the dynamics involved in this change.

Jubilate.

Ian