Become a Creature of (Good) Habit

If you watch golf, basketball or baseball, you'll notice that the players have a certain ritual they follow. Before a golfer tees off, he or she always has the same routine. Before a basketball player takes a foul shot, he or she always has the same routine. Before a baseball - or softball - player is ready for the pitcher to throw the ball, they have a certain routine they go through - Nomar Garcia Parra used to tighten his gloves over and over again, Ichrio Suzuki holds the bat out toward the pitcher, then tugs up his sleeve and gets into his stance, and on and on.

If they ever once get out of that rhythm, or routine...disaster follows. Take for example Tiger Woods, who has been working on a new golf swing for the last year and still hasn't gotten it down right. (Though with him his woes may be all psychological rather than physical.)

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, as I watch the 51-year-old Fred Couples falling apart on this last day at the Northern Trust Open! is that you also must become a creature of habit - and break any bad habits that you have.

Until I hit 40, I could eat, and more importantly drink, anything I wanted, and what I drank was Pepsi. A lot of it. And I did this out of habit. I couldn't get started in the morning at the computer unless I had a Pepsi, and every time I took a break to go out for a bike ride (the joys of self-employment) I had to have a Pepsi when I returned to the computer.

Then came age 40 and the changing of my metabolism. I knew it was coming - it happens to 990% of the people in the world - but I still resent it and think it unfair. But, you've got to deal with it. So I had to break my habit, and it was hard, I don't deny it. Because psychologically I was angry that I had to give up something I loved, despte the fact that I knew that that's "just the way it was."

So I had to break one habit, and to do that I replaced it with another habit. Now - although I still have a couple of Pepsis a day, I sit down that the computer with a glass of water. Not quite the same, but the weight stays off....