Habit is What Keeps You Going

| Coleen Patrick

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
~Jim Rohn

 

A couple of days ago I stood next to the kitchen counter peeling a banana. I dropped the peel–and the stringy banana “hairs”– into our compost container.

Then, without thinking, I broke off the end–a.k.a. the butt of the banana– and added it to the pile.

I have no problem with the banana butt. But my son always has. When he was younger he wouldn’t eat a banana unless I broke off the ends. The ends grossed him out.

My kids are teenagers now, still under my care, but it’s different. For the most part, there’s less micro-managing (I say for the most part, because somehow I can still hear my echo of have you emptied the dishwasher yet?)

But it’s not uncommon to see me filling their glasses half full at the dinner table, a nod to the days when my kids were too old for sippee cups, but not so old that they weren’t prone to spilling.

Leftover habits, lingering. Happily. Because every time I catch myself in one of these random mommy flashbacks, I smile.

 

It’s definitely the kind of habit that can keep me going.

Kind of like a dangling banana butt.

What are your happy habits? 

Have an awesome week,

 

Up for fun posts and cool pictures? Check out author, Patricia aka Jansen Schmidt. You may learn what a Xebec is, if you don’t already know. 🙂

 

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47 thoughts on “Habit is What Keeps You Going”

  1. Your journal entries are so unique & creative & make the reader feel so good. I hope you have the intension of publishing them one day as a one day at a time read, for inspiration & maybe publish along with it a blank journal for the reader to fill in. Your entries just get me thinking and inspire me, they give me a new energy. Please consider some day putting them all together for us. love you

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  2. When my son was little, I used to call him Mr. Bunny… which sometimes got shortened to just Bun. As he grew older, I had to be VERY careful NEVER to say it in a public place, but it was hard and would sometimes slip out. And even now that he’s about to go off to college, I still find myself occasionally wanting to call him that 🙂 I miss the days of half-filled cups, removing crusts from toast and sandwiches, making sure no two food items touched on the plate… But the number one thing that is a continued habit is bedtime. When my kids are home, I always still tuck them in… even if they’re going to be awake for another couple hours reading or on Facebook 🙂 Some things are hard to let go of, and it’s nice to have a minute to chat, smooth their hair back, give them a hug and kiss goodnight and wish them sweet dreams… and you know, old as they are, none of them seem to mind 🙂

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  3. LOL – I break off the banana butt too! I always hide a Mtn Dew in the bottom of the fridge so I always have a cold one if no one else refills the bin (and they never do). My family has known about my secret Dew for years but I still keep one there!

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  5. Never, ever heard the term “banana butt.” Very cute. My daughter was no a picky eater. My favorite memories were at bedtime when I’d make up “Nikki stories” and of course she had her favorite. Some were meditation oriented guranteed to help her go to sleep. Cute post!

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  6. Aww, what a sweet story. Banana butts! My son hates those, too. Now he claims to hate all of the banana, but I think it’s a textural thing. He also said he didn’t like nuts, but then one day ate a cookie that had nuts in it (unknowingly). When we told him it was full of nuts he just shrugged and said he still didn’t like them. Again, I think it’s textural.

    I like the quiet moments I get to spend one-on-one with my kids. Like this coming weekend my husband is going to be gone so it’s just me and The Kid. We’ve got some fun stuff planned, but we’re also going to watch the final two episodes of Doctor Who together. I’m looking forward to just hanging out with him and talking about nothing in particular. Sometimes those are the most profound conversations of all. Oh, and hopefully we’ll get to snuggle. He’s almost fifteen, so we’ll see, but I can hope, right?

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  7. I break the banana butts off, as well. Except, I don’t buy bananas anymore. The doctor said no more bananas for my boy. My husband would say I take tea with my honey, if you call that a happy habit. I also hide mini chocolates from the rest of the family. Yep. I’m that kind of mom.

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  8. Wow, Susanna, your almost grown kids still let you tuck them in? That’s totally cool!

    How about the habit of rocking back and forth (as if you have a baby in your arms) whenever you have ANYTHING in your arms. I still do that and my son is 33!!!

    Thanks for the Monday morning trip down memory lane, Coleen!

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  9. That is such a cute habit. And I’ve never heard the phrase “banana butt” before. LOL.

    I don’t know if I have any happy habits. I tend to talk in voices a lot, but I don’t think my boyfriend would say that’s a “happy” habit. LOL

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  10. I just had a banana for breakfast and love it butts and all!

    My grandma loves the end pieces on a loaf of bread and always asked to eat the asses! Now it sounds so dirty!

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  11. Coleen, you write the coolest posts. You have a knack for finding happiness in the simplest of life’s measures. I just love that about you. Look. You blogged about a banana and I bet everyone here smiled. I know I did. Take the butts and make banana bread, I say. 🙂

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  12. I no longer lean over to cut the meat of the person sitting next to me. (So awkward at business dinners.) That’s the good news. The bad news is that I try to foist food on my grown children. Are you hungry? Would you like a snack? Can I get you a little something?

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    1. I think I will be that way too. I always remember my grandmother and great aunts that way. One of them lived in an apartment right near a McDonalds and she’d hand over cash to us kids and tell us to go and get what we wanted. Then she’d offer us ice cream from her freezer!! As a kid that was FAB. 🙂

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  15. I’m with your son on the banana butt! Never could let go of that happy habit. Apart from that, I have a lot of other annoying, obsessive habits. Like being incapable of finishing a toilet roll… In some kind of day dream, I always end up leaving the last two sheets, which can be extremely irritating for the next person – especially if it’s the middle of the night! 🙂

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  16. That’s so funny. I always got rid of the banana butts too, although I don’t know why. They just look inedible I guess, lol. My happiest habit is thinking out loud, especially if I have the house to myself and I’m trying to sort out a glitch in a writing project. I love pacing the house and speaking out loud as though there is someone else in the room with me. I do this without realizing I’m doing it, it just seems like the right thing to do!

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    1. I talk out loud too. Especially when something I’m writing just doesn’t sound right. I’ve done it forgetting others are home and then always get the–WHAT?!? 🙂

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  17. I have no tolerance for banana butts. They make my stomach queazy. Your term “happy habits” is a fascinating one. My first instinct is to view a habit as a negative thing. I wonder of that says something of me, that I cannot easily think of a habit I perform that I see as positive. (Aside for the mundane “shower daily” type habits). I guess my favorite little happy habit is the single iced coffee I prepare and consume every evening when I get home from work. Sometimes, I go to make one and find that the ice maker has jammed and there us no ice. I get very cranky.

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    1. I think that’s what got me wanting to write about this topic–because it was weird to think of a habit as something happy. I get very cranky if I don’t have my time to sit down and drink tea. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by Luke!

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  22. My happy kid habit…the one that makes me grin every time…is when I have to hit the brakes – and every time my arm shoots out to the passenger seat. It doesn’t matter who is sitting there, or even if someone is sitting there sometimes. And it’s not like I made a habit of slamming on brakes or anything.

    Banana butts…yeah, those babies have to go. Along with any bruises – or the entire banana if there are any spots on the peel. If I can’t have them when the peel is still a little green, I can’t eat them. They get mushy and sweet and make me gag. Can’t do the mush. 🙂

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  23. I’ve never had a problem with eating the ends of bananas, and reading about banana butts cracks me up. I love the smiley face on the plate with the banana and the butts. You come up with the coolest stuff, Coleen. That pic of your son in his younger days is too precious. Love that smile. You’re such a good mom, then and now. Any lasting habits I might have just aren’t coming to me right now. Fun post!

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