I am very pleased to report that I have been successful in my endeavor to create a daily habit of flossing! The chain of little smiley faces on my calendar is 34 smilies long, which means I’ve been flossing every day for over a month. How do I know it’s really a habit and I’m not just doing it for the smiley faces? Two reasons: I reach for the floss as soon as I open the bathroom cabinet, without even really looking at the calendar on the inside of the cabinet door; and, sometimes after I floss I almost forget to draw the smiley on the calendar. That means that I’ve truly created a habit that no longer needs reinforcement from the calendar. However, I’m not quite ready to give up the calendar yet, because I will be away from home for a few weeks, so my routine will be different. I’ll have a different cabinet door to open, or maybe no cabinet at all. When your routines change (because of a change in location or environment) it is easy to let your habits slide. If you’re working on a habit, anticipate those changes and obstacles that could get you off track and plan how you’re going to overcome them. I plan to take a mini calendar with me so I can continue to keep track of the days. Once I’m settled back into the flow of the school year, I think I’ll be ready to go it alone!
Read my original post about creating this habit here.
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