Do you have a few habits that you know aren’t very good? Perhaps it is that you snack on junk food all the time, or spend too many hours playing video games? Maybe you choose to ignore things that you know you need to attend to, but find it easier to let them go? Either way, the longer you defer these problems, the more it is costing you in the long run. One of the best ways to explain this is to think about a credit card.
The Credit Card Analogy
Everyone knows how a credit card works. You get to pay with money you don’t have as long as you promise to pay it back later. If a promise to pay it back was your only obligation, it wouldn’t seem so bad. But as you know, credit cards make you pay interest. The longer you don’t pay the money back, the more interest accumulates. The bill always comes due.
Well, this is true for the poor choices we make in life every day. Every time you make a tiny bad choice, interest starts accumulating. Perhaps eating that “candy bar a day” versus the “apple a day” is adding up over the years. Now you have to pay for the years of this bad choice. The interest is the weight gained from poor diet choices, and the bill is the hill you have to climb to change your habits to eat better and even work out. But there is another choice…
The Other Choice
The other choice is to identify the bad habits now and nip them in the bud. The sooner you do this, the less interest accumulates. Just like paying your credit card off faster means less interest, identifying your bad choices and fixing them right away is the way to go. And trust me, it is easier to stop a bad habit early in life than it is to keep a bad habit for years or decades and then try to change it. Though it is possible, it typically is not easy. One way to avoid bad choices is to create a DON’T List.
The DON’T List
This is the list of things that you say you will NEVER do. This is where you draw the line in the sand. For example, I said I will NEVER use drugs. And guess what…I don’t. It is easy for me to say no when these situations arise. Over the years, it has come up a few times. I quickly say no and ensure I don’t hang around with people who do those things. By creating your DON’T List, you have a list of things that you know are bad and say you will never do. This makes it easy.
The Takeaway
If you know you have some bad habits, or you know there are some things out there that you should never do, I strongly suggest you take action now. Take some time, look at your life, and identify any negative habits that could accumulate some bad interest over the years. Then make a change. It is easier to nip these things in the bud early rather than drag these bad habits along for years and try to change them later. It will be much harder later and the bad interest that has accumulated can seem insurmountable. Get rid of these bad habits now.
Don’t forget your DON’T List either. This is an easy thing to create that ensures you don’t go down these bad roads. Pay attention to what you are doing and take care of yourself. Years of bad choices can be difficult to change. Not impossible, but difficult. Start today and make your life easier.