How do you know if you have a Habit? - eviltoast

I, am trying to understand if I have habits. My definition of a habit is: “Something that you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing that you are doing it” from the Harvard Dictionary

And It might look weird written here, but, I am not certain I have Habits. The most classic example is “Brush your teeth every night and morning”, but I don’t see myself naturally going to do it and most of the time I forget this and can’t seem to do it everytime a lot. So I can’t take that as an example of a Habit.

I eat everyday. But I don’t naturally go unconsciously eat every day. I forget every morning to eat, which makes me hungry at 12h, and at night I go est because I feel in my belly I need food, or because my Girlfriend is angry I didn’t eat yet very late because she asks me almost daily.

Hell I adore coffe, but in the morning I can just fully not think about doing a coffee. And I do take a coffee almost daily but because I think about all my pack of coffees that I putted behind my monitor with my grinder. It’s not a “natural thing I go do”? Because I can forget it if there is no joy stimuli for a coffee.

Ok last thing. I try to go swimming, but it’s because my girlfriend reminds me I really wanted to delete my belly, or because I think about my ideal me being more in shape and less tired everyday (which I’ve seen results on that part before stopping for no reason 2 weeks). When I go to the swimming pool, I put my stuff in the same area of Lockers, not always the same but the same area because I won’t forget. And I then go put my towel near the exit of the pool to dry myself when getting out of the water. Are those two things habits, or are those things logical choices that make sense in the current situation and I am overthinking this?

This is the longest question ever, but yeah, what’s a Habit I think, I’ve been running the question in my head for a few weeks now

  • mrcleanup@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    There’s a route you take when you walk to the front door, there’s a hand you open it with, there’s a way you shift your weight as you open it. Yes, usually going to the pastry shop on the weekend can be a habit too, but there really are tons your never think about.

    When someone calls your name, do you look or not? Fast or slow? When someone tells you their name do you repeat it to yourself in your head? Any of these things you do consistently without thinking are habits, and anything you do consistently through mental effort can be too, even if they aren’t automatic.