Habit Forming

The NY Times had an article this morning on creating new habits and why it's good for you. I need to create new habits. I suck at it overall. I once read that if you can do something continuously for 3 weeks it becomes a habit but I never seem to make it past a week.

At the moment this is about food, exercise, chores and learning something new. Every morning I wake up and say today is the day I count my WW points and get to the gym and everyday by lunchtime the motivation is totally gone. I need to get my ass in gear. My goal 18 months ago was to lose 100lbs by the time I was 40. I've lost 50 gained back 20,then lost 10 again. There's a little over 14 months until my 40th. Time is growing shorter.

I did no real housework this weekend. While in the short term that was pleasant in the long term it leads to an increasingly messy abode. I told Gina on Monday that I was going to focus on a room a night so by the weekend the house would be clean and I could relax and enjoy Mother's Day. How many rooms have I worked on? None, zip, zero.

I am pathetic.

I've also decided to learn something new. Work is a bit more stable at the moment but I've always wanted to have something outside of work that I was good at and could potentially make money at. Something that is not retail. I may be here for the rest of my life but I'd like to know it's by choice and not because I have to be. I'm going to take some online tutorials to see if I can learn that way but if I haven't made progress by September then I'll take classes here. Either way I need to find the discipline to get this done as well...

...I hate self-discipline, lol.

All of this leads to a meme oddly enough. mzundercover got me for this one and I found it's timing fortuitous:

Rules:
1. Link to the person(s) that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 non important quirks/things/habits about yourself.
4. Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a post on their blog.

Quirks/Things/Habits

1- I'm afraid of heights but looking down doesn't bother me. It's looking up that freaks me out. I feel like I'm not on solid ground.

2- I have to sleep with a blanket all year long. No matter the weather. If its really hot I only cover my midsection.

3- I have vertigo going down staircases and escalators. I have to really focus on making each step as I go down,I feel like it's straight down, rather than feeling each step/ledge. It's improved a great deal since my first pregnancy. I think not seeing my feet helped a lot, lol.

4- I am obsessive about e-mail. I check it constantly. I am only happy if my inbox is empty by the end of the day. I have numerous folders that I file e-mails in once they are read, responded to or completed in one way or another. I have been informed my many, many people that this is somewhat freakish.

5- I cannot be productive between the hours of 9pm and 11pm. No matter what I promise myself I will do I simply find myself on the couch watching TV or reading. This has even started to extend to knitting. Oddly enough if I'm not tired I do sometimes get a second wind at 11. I'll write, clean or knit before bed if I'm up that late.

6- I'm not a big coffee drinker but when I go to work if I don't start my day with a small cup of coffee I find it harder to become focused. I read somewhere that caffeine does improve productivity and focus in some people. I guess I'm one of them.

Another quirk I have is my refusal to tag people for memes. So take it if you want it...