LIFE'S RICH PATTERN
Bad Habits by Liz Foster
You’ve probably heard it takes 21 days to form a habit. It turns out it actually takes between 18 and 254 days. Back in the 1950s, plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz noticed his amputee patients still sensed a phantom limb for around 21 days before adjusting to their new normal. He layered this and other observations into a 30 million copy selling blockbuster on behaviour change. Fact became cemented in legend. And that’s when the problem started. Because Maltz had specified the word ‘minimum’ before the 21 day figure. And over time, more and more people recited Maltz’s work, dropping the ‘minimum’ from ‘it takes 21 days to form a habit.’ Like a long long game of Chinese Whispers. Let’s stick with 21 days as it’s what we know, and besides, it feels achievable, which 254 days does not. We’ve been in lockdown for nine weeks at time of writing, which is three habit forming time frames. So it feels timely to spell out those that might be worth keeping and those – not so much. 1. Delete all emails selling stuff. Better still, unsubscribe. If you find yourself clicking through, leave the items in your basket until the next day. If you still must have that platypus shaped tea infuser, the retailer might give a discount to tip you over the line, so it’s a win win. 2. Before you buy that lockdown appliance (pie maker, bread maker, air fryer etc) check you have enough cupboard space to store it. 3. Put makeup on at least twice a week, otherwise it will clog and dry out, plus keep up your technique or you’ll forget which way to hold the mascara wand. Ditto shaving. 4. Buying Just In Case – that extra tin of tomatoes, and, admit it, a spare bulk pack of toilet tissue. I bet a pantry inventory will reveal enough provisions to get your family through the next month. 5. Having dinner for lunch and dinner – if you’ve gone from grabbing a quick sanga on the fly to rummaging through the fridge every lunchtime, you might find that extra weight hard to shift. Especially if you’ve been sitting down all day. 10 TVO
Illustration by Grace Kopsiaftis
6. The family pooch has grown accustomed to you doing the Downward Dog in the kitchen between work zooms. Prepare for them to go into a decline when they start to see less of you again. 7. The family’s fitness levels have become a subject of shared interest. Exercise is now on the List Of Things That Are Each Other’s Business, and it never used to be. As my 18-year-old will attest. 8. Booking a phone call. Remember when you’d call your bestie for a yarn? Now calls need to be scheduled in between an abundance of time. Go figure. 9. Organise family & friends Zoom dress ups featuring all our new hair styles and regrowth. I’m leading the way with Hobbit hair, curling over my ears and down my neck. 10. Multitasking by walking while listening to that interesting podcast you heard about is great and all, until you come a cropper, break your leg, and get thirty pieces of metal embedded in your limbs. Not only super painful and inconvenient, but a real impediment to airport security scans (whenever that happens). When all this is behind us, we can look forward to reforming habits we’ve forgotten about, like eating out or having friends over. Heck, we might even go all out and read a book on a park bench. I know right! Crazy talk!
Liz Foster is a local writer and author. You can find more Life’s Rich Pattern features and more at
www.lizfosterwriter.com
