Habits can be like the lingering fragrance of a perfume bottle. (Click image for video)

Eradicating Bad Habits (Click image to see video)

Pleasure from indulging ourselves is momentary.

Guilt from having done so lasts much longer. 

Eating an entire bag of chips, browsing online and impulsively buying a new gadget, hitting snooze on the alarm clock as we burrow back into the sheets—all are done because we feel entitled to them.

Perhaps we had worked hard and felt a reward was deserved.

Perhaps we hadn’t worked hard and sought to distract ourselves from self-reproach.

Perhaps we were unhappy.

Or just bored.

And so we indulged ourself and felt a surge of enjoyment. All too soon, however, that momentary pleasure passes and only the memory remains. And with it guilt. Having previously determined the futility of such indulgences, we had told ourselves we wouldn’t repeat them. And yet, we just did. Feelings of frustration, remorse, embarrassment fester within us. They linger, enduring far longer than any fleeting satisfaction from our latest bout of indulgence.

What can we do?

Understand we have more work to do, commit ourselves to doing it, and get to work.

After asking a question and receiving the reply,

remember to say “thank you.” 

If our parents were looking over our shoulder while we are emailing, they’d likely be shocked. “You forgot ‘thank you’!”

In an impersonal age of instantaneous communication, courtesy is too often relegated to the distant past. For example, a person emails another, perhaps with a question of how to do something. Perhaps asking a favor. The recipient stops what she’s doing to carefully compose a reply. It might be what the person needed to know; it might be regret for not being able to help.

She hits send.

And that’s it.

End of conversation.

It’s the end because the person who wrote the first email doesn’t respond with “thank you.” Or anything else. It’s akin to their asking for something, having it given to them, and, firmly grasping it in their hand, without a word turning and walking away. Most of us wouldn’t do this. And yet many don’t email “thank you.” We need to. Why?

It’s polite.

Politeness not a good enough reason? You may want to ask for another favor.