Breaking Bad...Habits

In 2023, I had knee replacement surgery and I went in for several follow-up appointments.  It seems like every time I go in for a follow-up appointment, they ask me these same 15 questions they asked me last time, because why would that automate and populate (something about HIPAA, blah, blah, blah 🤔.)I usually get frustrated, but once in a while, I don't mind it so much because I like answering some of the questions.Why?Because I've developed some better healthy habits later in my life than I had earlier in my life.So, we'll, when the questionnaire says, "Hey, are you on any new prescription medications?", I get to check. Nope.And if it asks me, "Have you had any additional surgeries or hospitalizations?" Sure haven't.What about a smoker? Are you a smoker, Charles? Certainly not.Then it gets to the question, "Do you drink more than once or twice a week?" And you know, I lie.There are bad habits that many of us have developed myself as well. have a ton of bad habits that I must continually figure out how to break.And a bad habit, once ingrained and once wired into us, kind of sticks around forever, until you remove certain cues or rewire it.For example, I've turned into my dad.At night, 8:30 or so I sit down on the couch or rather the chair with the ottoman and try to watch TV with the family. Something usually wonderful like the Voice, God help us 🤣 and I'll pass out pretty quickly cuz you know, dad stuff.I remember my dad would do that as we were kids and I would try to change the channel and. He instinctively knew and would wake up and say, "Oh, Tom Watson's on the 18th hole. Put it back." How he did that, I didn't know. Now I do, that's called being dad tired 😴. But either way, it sucks and it's not a family-friendly thing to do.Another bad habit I have is grabbing a snack from the pantry if I see something tempting, like Pringles, or Tabasco-flavored Cheez-its.In our personal lives and in our businesses, recognizing the cue that causes the bad habit is the first step to breaking it.For instance:If you have a bad habit of checking your email constantly throughout the day, you might need to change your environment by closing your email client or turning off notifications during specific work hours.Another bad habit you might have in your business is if you've delegated a task to someone quite capable, but then you can't help but check in on them and then tell them how to do the task over and over. Instead, you need to give yourself a timeframe before checking in or have whomever you're checking in with sending you a mini-report.Or better yet, if you're one of these folks that can't keep a lot of savings in the account because it kind of burns a hole in your pocket and you suddenly think of 15 more things you need to buy with that money. You may need to remove the app that allows you to check your account or keep a list handy of all of your upcoming expenses.Changing your cue, changing your environment.For me, I no longer sit on that same chair with an ottoman to watch these god-awful TV shows with my family. I'll sit on the ottoman most of the time and sit straight up.When I go to the pantry now, all of the snacks that I would normally get are now placed behind bins and I use MyFitness Pal.