Habits from necessity and habits from choice
Habit
An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary
For about ten years I had the BEST small espresso machine in my kitchen. I write that with complete truth. It was the Briel Chamonix and I used it daily making at least three cups of espresso for myself and more if family and friends wanted something stronger than drip coffee.
My routine was to get up early every morning, turn on the machine, feed my dog, then, when the light turned the right color, I would fill my espresso in the little container thing, put my cup underneath and press start. Then I would usually do more wandering like water the plants and plan my day as I knew the machine would stop at the perfect moment when my cup was filled. It was reliable, a workhouse, did everything I asked, didn’t take up much space on the counter and, well, I better stop before I start crying!
Four months ago it stopped working. Water no longer made it’s way through it’s internal tubes. I tried everything, vinegar wash, decalcifier, water only for days and days and nope, just no more oomph to make that really awesome cup of espresso every morning.
I found a new espresso machine a few weeks ago. It was the right price for me and the reviews reminded me of how much value the Briel Chamonix provided me. I bought it and I love it! One little issue, there is no automatic shut-off.
At first I thought, “that’s fine, I’ll just be sure to remember to watch it.” I did the first two times I used it, then I just forgot. It sounded just like my old Briel machine and so I just unconsciously went about my usual habit of puttering or doing other stuff while the espresso machine was running. Usually something inside me would alert me “yo! that espresso machine is still running!” causing me to jump up from whatever I was doing and turn off the espresso machine.
Not so this morning.
I completely forgot to turn off the machine while it was brewing the espresso. La la la, I’m engrossed in my tasks, take a break, I head into the kitchen…
Water dripping down the counters, a little cappuccino cup overflowing with black water, a machine completely dry and yet still on and running, trying to create espresso.
This led me to the topic of today’s post. The importance of habits.
Habits from Necessity versus Habits from Choice
What new habit or way of living have you wanted to start for yourself? Maybe it’s something as simple as making your bed every morning just after you wake up. Or something that requires a combination of will and effort such as getting in shape to run a full marathon.
You probably know from experience that creating a new habit requires remembering to do it, focusing, and making it a priority. Sometimes it’s easy and fun, sometimes, it takes will power. These are the new habits created from choice. That is, you had something you wanted to change and so you made it a priority to change. The end result? A new habit formed.
What about new habits created from necessity? Those seem to take hold a lot faster like my own example with my new espresso machine. After ten years of never having to think about watching my espresso machine, I have a new habit to create immediately from necessity.
Other necessity habits may be having to drive down a different street everyday because of a permanent road closure or getting used to the new layout in your favorite grocery store after a remodel.
Necessity habits come from external changes that impact us — not borne out of our choice, rather necessary because something changed that was beyond our control and we needed to adapt. The end result? A new habit formed.
Choice habits are formed from the internal desire to change, necessity habits usually because we have no choice but to change and adapt.
Both though lead to the same result, a new behavior pattern that once done, over and over again, becomes something done almost involuntarily (and many times unconsciously, like tying our shoes).
Habits and Coins
We also have money habits. These include how we like to spend our money (cash, checks, debit or credit cards), whether or not we keep our receipts and file them, how we carry our money, etc. It’s all habit from years and years of daily ways we spend and receive our money and track it.
Some were created out of necessity. Maybe you are hyper-conscious of costs because you were very careful with your money for many years. You created a habit out of necessity. No matter how much money you may have now, you still continue to look at the cost of things from the place where you formed your money habits.
Some money habits were created by choice such as deciding to save 10% of every incoming coin.
Weekend Exercise
This weekend, watch yourself in your money habits. How do you pull out your wallet or purse to pay for a purchase? What do you do with the receipt?
Watch yourself as if you were an observer when you buy something. How are you standing in line? Look at what you are buying and why you are buying it.
Try not to pass it off quickly like, “I’m buying groceries because I need to eat” Instead, “here I am in line buying groceries. How much of these groceries will I eat in the coming week? I wonder how people lived thousands of years ago without grocery stores. If they could see my basket full of food, I wonder what they would think? Why do I always buy ________.” Be truly curious as to why you buy certain items, why you picked that store to do your shopping.
You want to observe the habit and see if you can remember what caused it to begin in the first place. For example, “why do I always buy the Crest brand of toothpaste?” Once you find the origin of the habit, you will better understand what type of habits are easiest for you to create.
From this point, you can understand the power of everyday money habits and how they manifest in your current money system, either from necessity or choice.
Next week: Changing your money system and creating new habits
HAPPY OBSERVING!