Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Changing Habits

It's hard to change habits.  I've been working on two this month.  The first was to spend only $100. (The second was to build a daily home yoga practice...more on that in another post.)  When I started, I gave myself all kinds of rules.  Co-pays, doctors visits, yoga, ayurveda, meditation....none of those would count towards my $100 allotment because they were all health-related.  Is there really a price tag that I can put on my health?  But as the month went on, I started to talk myself out of that rationalization.  I can rationalize anything.  And I seriously mean ANYTHING!

The reason that I wanted to write about it and share it with the few of you that actually read my rantings is to be held accountable.  Here is how it's shaking out so far:

$6.56  almond oil:  This is a carrier oil for the essential oils that I have.  Not really an "essential" health item, though I could conjure up a good argument!
$7.00  burrito & taquitos:  By not planning, I bought this food out one night.
$2.00 muni fare:  bus ride home from the yoga journal conference..luckily Larry dropped me off and picked me up most days.
$10.00 class chage fee:  I changed my mind and decided to take a second class with Cyndi Lee at the YJC.  This was money very well spent.
$1.00 parking meters:  I could rationalize this too, but decided to include it in the end.
$58.00 meditation retreat:  Again, I wanted to discount this, but decided in the end not to.
($100.00 meditation retreat:  This one is debatable.  I received a surprise $100 gift card in the mail from work because we were above and beyond our targets for last year.  Technically, I spent it on the retreat, but I'm giving myself a freebie here since it miraculously showed up at my door a few days before the retreat!)
$4.00 muni fare:  unexpected money spent on the train during the meditation retreat
$9.80 lunch with friends:  at the last minute I decided to have lunch with friends even though I brought my lunch with me.
$25.00 dharma talk:  I post-dated the check to next Friday so that it wouldn't count in spending for this month, but Larry says that is cheating.  Argh!  I thought I was being smart:)

Total spent: 
$223.36
- $100 from my magical gift card = $123.36
-$25 from my post-dated check = $98.36 spent

So with all of my justifications, I'm doing well.  I still have $1.64 left.  Without it, I failed.  Habits are hard to change.  But changing my bad habit of justifying everything is proving to be more difficult.  I'm going to let this info sit and stew within myself for a few days and come back with more of a game plan. 

 What do you think?  How have you changed habits?  Do you have any tips for me?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I am checking this blog using the phone and this appears to be kind of odd. Thought you'd wish to know. This is a great write-up nevertheless, did not mess that up.

- David

sf mom said...

Thanks David. I'm not sure how to fix it, but I'll look into it.