First we make our habits...

...then our habits make us. Or so the quote goes. For some reason, I have been thinking a lot about habits today. It all started at work when I went to the water cooler to refill my water bottle for the third time in two hours (yes, I take frequent bathroom breaks). I leaned into the cooler and put my bottle under the tap with the blue handle and held it there as the water slowly trickled out. I kept it there for a minute and a half before I remembered that I had already earlier discovered that the blue tap was clogged and the water from the white tap came out just as cold. Why did I repeat the mistake and head straight for the familiar blue tap to the right, even when I knew it wasn't working? Refilling my bottle is something I do four or five times a day maybe, and I now clearly go through the motions without thinking. It has become habitual. It was when I repeated my actions for the fourth time and held my bottle under the non-functioning blue tap once again, I realized just how difficult such a silly habit is to break.

I consider myself lucky that I am not a prisoner to any seriously damaging habits. Especially considering my bloodline, which is full of characters who have both thrived because of, and fallen victim to a predisposition to addiction and habit. I don't smoke, I don't like soda and I have never ever been a nail biter. Some of my worst habits include twiddling my eyebrows, eating after midnight and checking my email five hundred thousand times a day. I have tried to change my ways on several occasions, but as I have learned first hand, bad habits most certainly do die hard. I think I remember hearing that it only takes three times of doing something for it to become habitual, but it takes more than twice that amount of times to kick a habit. And even so, are we ever really safe from our bad habits that we have overcome in the past? How long until we fall back into comfort and show ourselves as the creatures of habit we really are?

There are clear and obvious benefits to our human ability, dare I say skill, of picking up habits. I admire those who are in the habit of waking up extra early, those who have made working out a habit and those who truly have the habit of eating healthy. I am a positive enough thinker to believe that we can conquer the habits we no longer want as part of our routine, but I am fascinated by the struggle and the psychology behind it all. Why is it so easy to become accustomed to something we know is not good for us, and yet so difficult to change our ways for the better? What are some of your "bad" habits?