I feel weird without it

If you do a gazillion overhead volleys, they will become second nature. (Image by HeungSoon)

I’ve started going into places without a mask on.

I welcome this development wholeheartedly, and I’m thrilled when I can see the faces of servers and store clerks and baristas who have been shrouded and muffled beneath layers of fabric all year. But it does feel a little odd. It feels like I’m forgetting something.

I remember the first time I went somewhere with a mask on — how dark and dystopian and uncomfortable it felt. I felt like I couldn’t get enough oxygen. Only a few months later, it was something I didn’t even think about. Keys, wallet, phone, mask. And now, I have to revise my habits once again.

Habits are difficult to acquire, like trying to light a match against its soggy box in a drizzle. But once established, the habit is equally difficult to extinguish. This is hell on anyone trying to quit smoking or swearing, but good news for those of us who are trying to establish new habits. We just have to get through that initial misery of getting started, and then we’re golden.

Obviously, the word “just” conceals a multitude of challenges that confront the would-be habit-adopter. But even though there are fits and starts and flameouts on the way to success, the habit will eventually take hold if we keep trying long enough. And then, instead of feeling weird and uncomfortable with the new habit, it will feel weird without it. It will become as difficult to get rid of as an unwanted habit.

I have noticed this phenomenon when it comes to eating vegetables. Once a hamburgers-and-hot-dogs kind of person, I now prefer the majority of a given meal to be made up of things that grow out of the ground. It’s strange now to have a plate full of brown foods with nothing green.

Another well-established habit is writing in my diary, which I began at age thirteen and have continued daily ever since. Whenever I’ve realized that I missed a day, which has occurred only a handful of times, I have felt a bit of disorientation, I’ve stepped into a parallel universe. “Where was I? What happened to me last night?”

I rely on my habits to make certain tasks and practices automatic. From updating my budgeting software to writing my blog posts to flossing my teeth, I can depend on the discomfort of not doing it to help me do it. It is actually easier and less frictionless to follow through with the habit than to play hooky.

Knowing what life is like on the other side allows me to navigate the bumpy beginning of introducing a new habit. I can handle the short-term pain because I know that it is short-term. I know that it’s only a matter of a few days or weeks before the habit becomes part of me. In fact, I’d better be careful about choosing which habits I want to be stuck with, because I will be stuck with them.

I never went as far as disinfecting my groceries, but I’ve been an obedient mask-wearer for the entire pandemic. Now it’s time to let the mask go, even though I feel a bit weird without it. But just like a yoga practice or taking my shoes off when I walk into a home, I know I’ll get used to the new way of doing things. I can use this same principle to build new habits that I’ll be glad I invested in. Before long, they will be the next “new normal” and I will feel weird if I ignore them.

Time to decide what habit I will pick up next. What about you?