Belated Space Bird Celebration

Yes, that's right, you are reading the words of a Space Bird graduate! On July 1 (Happy Space Bird Day!), I managed to go 500 days without having a hot chocolate. Was it an addiction? Mmmm... possibly. For sure, it was a very, very well-entrenched habit... and not a good one. Never mind the $$ spent on hot chocolate at Starbucks, there was also the impact on my waistline and my arteries and cholesterol levels.

Eleven years ago, more or less, I ditched my Coke habit (that's Coca Cola... not the other stuff). That too was a huge thing... but I managed to do it. And now, 11 years later, I feel nary a flicker of desire when I walk by a vending machine. On the other hand, even though I'm free of hot chocolate, I still feel twinges of desire for a rich and creamy, oh so yummy, Starbucks hot chocolate with whipped cream and mocha drizzle. Mmmm... Sooo... clearly there is still some life in that habit and I have to be vigilant.

For a while, I've been planning a blog post on the distinction between habits and willpower. It takes a lot of oomph to alter a habit and about 30-60 days. But once you are over that hump, and have a new habit in place, it does go more smoothly. Relying on willpower, however, is more problematic, as willpower is a limited resource and, by most afternoons, most of us are extremely depleted in the willpower department.

I'm going to have to do some more research but a few tips on shifting from one habit to another are:

• Awareness - identify the when/where/who of your old habit - me, at Starbucks, with a hot chocolate, happily sipping and working away on some writing in the peaceful white-noise hubbub of a coffee shop.
  
• Identify the Triggers - is it stress or boredom? What is going on in your life? Right now, Covid-19 stress is a big driver in people clinging to old habits. I hesitate to say "bad" habits... maybe it's more that they don't lead to desired outcomes. For myself, going to Starbucks was my "peaceful zen" time... or at least, that's how I saw it. I could get away from all of the clamouring to-do-list tasks and interruptions at home (I'm looking at you, cat!) and just focus on one thing.
• Write it down - make the promise to yourself in writing and look at it every day
• Alter the Environment - change the when/where/who of the old habit. I made it much harder on myself by continuing to go to Starbucks and doing my usual routine. It would have been easier had I gone elsewhere... like Tim Hortons where they have terrible hot chocolate.
• Buddy up - find someone to be accountable to... or someone who also wants to alter an old habit.
  
• Replace the old habit with a new one - instead of ordering a hot chocolate at Starbucks, I would order a chai tea. Again, I made this harder on myself because not only was the hot chocolate a habit, going to Starbucks was a habit. It would have been far better for me to replace my morning Starbucks habit with something else - a hike, a spell in the garden, going to the library.
  
• Reward or Penalty - identify some reward or penalty that can serve as a motivator for altering the old habit. For me, the idea of paying a $5 penalty to my partner every time I had a hot chocolate was a serious motivator and oftentimes, it was the only thing that kept me from ordering a hot chocolate during that first month.

Our brains love to set things up on auto-pilot... disrupting that takes time and attention. But it is doable. I had been trying to quit hot chocolate for several years, so it took me repeated attempts to finally ditch it for good. It also requires vigilance because already... I can see the potential for several other less-than-desirable habits forming... Starbucks double chocolate brownies... chocolate, period! I am working in the direction of indulging in a brownie once a week, after a hike, using money that I have collected whilst hiking (e.g. picking up beer and pop cans on my daily walks). If I have enough money at the end of the week (or Starbucks points) for a brownie, brilliant. If not... too bad. In many ways, this is a perfect merging of several habits:

1. Encourages me to take my daily walks - the more walks I take, the more likely I am to find cans, etc.
2. Encourages me to bring plastic bags and pick up litter - I am still struggling with the hurdle of "what will people think".
3. Rewards me with a brownie at the end of the week. The only hiccup I see with this little holy trinity of habits is... collecting too many cans and getting to the point where I have enough weekly funds for more than one brownie! Still... $3.10 for a brownie, means I need to collect 31 cans in a week... Today I got none sooo...I don't think "too many cans" is going to be a problem...

So... that's where I'm at... mighty Space Bird that I am... and trying to amend old habits and develop new ones... Some of it might seem silly to others, looking in, but... whatever works, baby!