Let’s face it – people have bad habits. Sure, the definition changes from person to person, but for each individual, there is something that they personally consider a “bad” habit.
From a strictly logical and reasonable point of view, it makes sense to shed all bad habits, and live a holistic, perfectly balanced, and healthy lifestyle.
Yeah, that sounds like loads of fun…
Okay, so if you’re not willing to go the “I never do anything wrong” route, is it possible to have a bad habit in a GOOD way?
The answer is Yes, but as you can probably guess, there is a price to pay if you want that bad habit to have anything but a 100% negative effect on your life. In short, you have to earn it.
Let me disclaim this entire post by saying that no “bad” habit can also be a good habit. However, you can minimize the negative impact of bad habits by offsetting them with a little bit of preventative maintenance!
The basic idea here is that if you are going to practice a bad habit, why not minimize the damage by doing the opposite of that habit as often as possible? Some examples:
Junk Food
Most people have some sort of food that they enjoy that is just straight up BAD for the human body. Whether it’s saturated fat, high sodium, excessive carbs, or just an all around unhealthy food choice, most people are still going to eat something unhealthy from time to time.
So, if Friday night means dinner out with the family, and you’ve got your heart set on a pile of nachos covered in hamburger, sour cream, and fried mozzarella, there is no way you are getting around the fact that you should NOT eat that.
What if you ate a strict, by the book diet for all of the other 6 days, though? Fresh fruits and vegetables, little or no red meat, plenty of fiber, low sodium intake, and on top of all that, you took a quality multivitamin every day?
Does 6 days cancel out that 1 day of overindulgence? Cancel? No. Minimize the damage? Absolutely.
Alcohol
Peter over at I Will Change Your Life put up a great post about how he gave up alcohol for a weekend, and the gang over at PDP turned around and had a good discussion about it.
The basic idea was that the benefits of not drinking for an entire weekend were clear for all to see, and most (all?) bad habits will fall into that same pattern. Give them up, and you will quickly experience the benefits of doing so.
However, if you are not willing to give up your fun with alcohol, why not minimize the impact on your liver, your wallet, and your brain cells by “tea-totaling” the rest of the time?
Personally, I drink fairly regularly, although not to excess, and certainly not every day. However, whenever I’m not drinking alcohol, I’m usually drinking water. Alcohol may not be good for my body, but my body gets plenty of TLC from me when alcohol is not present, so when I drink, I do so guilt-free, and I do it in moderation.
Exercise
No, exercise is not a bad habit. However a lack of exercise is certainly an unhealthy habit, and most of us are familiar with that particular dance.
However, whether it is due to weekend social activities, out of town trips, vacations, or just general laziness, very few people actually get the recommended amount of exercise 7 days per week. That being said, compare the fictional characters Fred and George:
Fred is incredibly busy, and even though he knows he should exercise more often, he rarely gets to the gym more than twice a week. When the weekend comes around, he is so wiped out physically and mentally from his high-stress job that all he wants to do is relax and enjoy his time off.
George is also incredibly busy, and he also knows that exercise is important. In addition, George really likes to relax on the weekends, just like Fred does. George, on the other hand, gets up 45 minutes earlier than Fred does, every day Monday through Friday, and exercises vigorously for 45 minutes before showering and going to work.
Both of these men take the weekends off to relax, and neither one of them exercises on the weekends.
Who is more healthy and physically fit – Fred or George?
As you can see from these examples, the effects of most “bad” habits can be minimized by practicing the opposite of those bad habits most of the time. You will never be able to completely eliminate the negative side effects of bad habits, but you may be able to minimize their effects, and thus enjoy those bad habits guilt-free as a result of your preventative maintenance efforts!
Just a short little comment before I head off to be more like George than Fred, should I find out what my bad habits are and optimize to reduce their negativity?
What is the optimization for blogging too much?lol
My bad habit is procrastinating. However, I see your point in actively doing the exact opposite of the habit. While not everybody can banish bad habits out of their lives, by always telling yourself to do the exact opposite, you become conscious of the frequency the said bad habit pops out. And every time you make a decision to do the opposite, you are becoming stronger and better at defeating it.
I agree here…with food there is no good or bad food. By itself, food does not hold a value like this. Therefore, its how we use the foods that is important. Everything in moderation…
This is a good start to changing habits. Thank-you.
Mark,
Glad that you liked it! Our habits make us who we are in the long run, so having a handle on them just makes sense. 🙂
Absolutely agree! Everything that is fun seems to be a bad habit, unfortunately. 🙂
And therefore, rather than live a loooong life without an iota of ‘bad habits’ has always seemed impractical to me and not a life I would enjoy living. I think the key is to do things in moderation. Alcohol but not a alcoholic, junk food but not every day, etc.
Shantanu,
Absolutely – moderation is the key! Even things that are good for us like exercise or eating certain foods can be damaging if done excessively.
Having a harmonic balance of “good vs. bad” is a key to being happy and healthy, but also to keeping our sanity!