January 10, 2012
I LOVE Real Simple magazine!! Notice the all caps for the word love and the extra exclamation. Real Simple is the one magazine that I immediately tear into each month and read cover-to-cover. Yes it may take me several days/weeks to get through it - stealing paragraphs or pages during the kids' practices, before bed or during lunch breaks, but I tend to go back throughout the month and re-read articles until the next month's magazine hits my mailbox. I have even implemented things - like cleaning out the linen/medicine closet, organizing the Christmas decorations and trying out countless recipes. All good and, of course, simple.
This month the focus is "How to Break Bad Habits - 85 Expert Strategies to Improve Your Life for Good." Well now, in retrospect of my last blog, I really didn't think this month's mag would be speaking to me. I couldn't think of a single bad habit I have. I don't smoke, gamble or eat sweets. I never text while driving. I balance my spending and saving habits. I don't avoid the doctor. And I recycle regularly.
Now don't get me wrong, you have heard me type this before, I am not a goodie goodie or miss perfect kind of gal. I have my share of vices. I am a java-holic, salt lover, Facebook addict, volunteer junkie, and wine-bottle finisher (weekends only). But overall I feel like my bad habits are under control. And for the record I am not a closet alcoholic, although I do love wine and am capable of finishing a bottle or two by myself, I leave my wine consumption to the weekends when I don't have to be a coherent mom carting children off to the basketball courts and ball fields - so rarely do I consume since our schedule is over-full thanks, mostly, to my inability to say no. :)
As I read this month, I found I have bad habits that I didn't know that I had.
"Sleeping through your alarm" - what is wrong with that? One can't snooze 6 or 7 times before dragging oneself out of bed anymore? How exactly is one suppose to wake up? Put a coffee pot on the nightstand? (Note to self, this is a fabulous idea.)
"Half-hearted Housekeeping" - is there really any other kind? I am not donning the panties & high heels like Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl." Sorry, husband. Yes, I vacuum my living room in exactly the same path, that's the only way I know how. But apparently that is super bad for the carpet. The carpet pile needs to be shifted back and forth and side-to-side or ground-in dirt will be missed? That just sounds like I am vacuuming the room twice - no thanks. Besides all those dark spots of ground-in dirt don't come up with a shampooer or scrub brush, let alone a vacuum. Yes, pretty much every utensil I own gets washed in the dishwasher. If a wooden spoon cracks, guess I will buy a new one.
Now I am not bashing this issue of Real Simple - still LOVE it, the mag and this issue. There were tons of helpful morsels of knowledge. I guess as I read and re-read, I got to wondering when a bad habit is really considered a bad habit? If I don't think it is a bad habit, is it really? (If a tree falls in a forest...) Who gets to judge such things? Are we capable of judging our bad habits by ourselves?
I suppose my inability to say no could be construed as a habit. Don't believe me? Just look at my email signature:
Sincerely, Mel
a.k.a. Wife, Mom, Bling Girl, Marketing Guru, Basketball Spectator, Ballfield Frequenter, 'Lost' Junkie, Wine Lover, Salsa Maker, Church Goer and yes, PTA Co-President
Whether it is guilt, a compulsion to help others, or just simply a fear of letting people down, I rarely say no when someone asks me to help out. At the time of asking, I really do think "Of course! It is no problem." But when you add up all the little things I do to my already over-burdened schedule of being a wife and mother, I very often feel overtaxed and stressed. And I do recognize that I have done this to myself. I'll check "saying yes to everything" as a bad habit for me. Although my kids would totally disagree with this. According to them, I tell them NO all the time - in fact, in my 11-year-old's eyes I NEVER say yes!! Again note the all caps and extra exclamation. But I will attempt to use some of the magazine's helpful responses to nicely say "no" to the abundant requests of my time and money. "Oh, I'm sorry, husband, this is a bad time." LOL.
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