Creating new habits, getting off the old habit wheel
Getting Off the Old Habit Wheel and Creating a New Habit Wheel (Much More Fun and Exciting Too!)
Last week I wrote about habits formed by choice and those formed from necessity. These habits are especially important when it comes to your habits with your coins.
We all have money habits. From the way we pull out our wallets to pay for goods and services, to what brand of cereal or yogurt we buy, to how often we work in our mints (money system).
Did you do the exercise from last week? Did you observe yourself purchasing something you always buy and never think why? Or think about why you never ask for the receipt or double check the change given back to you?
We each have our own way of doing things, especially when it comes to our money. There is no right or wrong way. There is though a way that is best for you.
Necessity Habits
How many of your money habits were created from necessity? These tend to stick with us the longest and are usually the easiest to form. Why? Because we had no choice. We had to adapt and create the habit because other options were not available to us.
Eckhart Tolle gives a great example through a habit he formed when he had very little money:
This is something I have a little bit of personal experience with also. Or maybe even quite a lot of personal experience – because for a large part of my adult life I was actually not employed, as such. For a large part I lived on relatively little, for quite a few years, even in my thirties, below the poverty line. At that time I read the paper, and it mentioned the income level for a single person, for what was considered to be below the poverty line, and I thought "I'm much below that!" But I didn't realize I was "poor". I realized that there were things I couldn't afford to buy. I could buy tomato sauce but I couldn't buy spaghetti sauce. Tomato sauce is cheaper, much cheaper. That stayed with me for many years. Even as recently as four years ago, I still find myself getting tomato sauce instead of spaghetti sauce because it's cheaper. (from Eckhart Tolle's newsletter October 2010)
This is typically how our "basic" habits are formed. Those that form the core of our spending and receiving habits as well as the emotion and beliefs that accompanied their origin.
Choice Habits
These usually started when something inside us said either "no more" or "I'm going to start doing that too." One example could be how you strike the match against the box of matches. Do you strike it towards yourself or away from yourself? I remember when I made the conscious choice to get into the habit of striking the match against the box away from myself. I read something that said it was dangerous to strike the match towards oneself so I decided I would not do that anymore. It took a few awkward tries, however now it's a habit.
Another example of a choice habit could have been the day you sat down and looked at how much you paid in bank fees or late fees and said "no more." You may have at that point set up a system to be sure to avoid bank fees as much as possible or never pay a bill late. To the point where you have created a system for yourself that you know works for you (having all bills be on autodraft for payment or something as simple as a folder where you place all bills and pay them once a week).
Breaking and Creating New Money Habits
Have you ever tried to stop a habit? It can be hard. Even if you have to break it out of necessity, it can take many repetitions to remove or replace the action or behavior with a new one.
Here's a simple exercise to see how long it takes you to create a new money habit:
Starting right now and through the next week, everytime you pull out your wallet to make a purchase, instead of hurriedly stuffing your money, credit/debit card, and receipts back into your wallet, take the time (just a few seconds) to fold your receipt and put it and your money/cards back in their right location, and zip up your wallet.
You may think this is unnecessary or silly. It's not. This is how habits are formed. The purpose is to watch yourself as you create this new way of purchasing everyday and how long it takes before you start doing it without thinking. It's an easy and non-stressful way to challenge yourself and see how quickly you can adapt to making a simple change in your routine.
Oh, and if you already do this? Then do the opposite.
Be hurried with your money, put the receipt in the bag instead of your wallet and put your cards and money into a new section of your wallet. It's about observing yourself and how you react when you consciously change your routine.
Your observations of yourself and how quickly you are able to get into the habit of doing these new steps will be very useful next week when I'll write about creating the habits of what everyone wants with their money: receiving more, saving more, and living well.
Happy Habit Forming!