NEW DAY NEW LESSON » communication, Featured, Kindness Club, Lesson of the Day » Even With Good Intentions, Habits Take Time To Form
Even With Good Intentions, Habits Take Time To Form
I have heard more than once (but please don’t ask me to look for sources right now or I will never finish this post) that it takes about three weeks to form a new habit. That means three weeks of reinforcing the same behavior over and over again.
All of us have good intentions of forming new good habits. We want to exercise every day. We want to eat correctly. We want to be polite.
Yet many of us end up failing to ingrain this new habit into our daily routine. We fail to make it a natural part of our every day lives, despite really good intentions.
I had that as a reminder this past week. The prompt I gave for last week’s Kindness Club was to say please and thank you for everything. In general I am a pretty polite person. Or at least more polite than I used to be. Amazingly enough it was my husband who taught me a lot about the virtues of saying please and thank you.
And still I found myself asking can you or could you instead of please or please can you. It may sound like I am nitpicking a bit, but that little word of please before any request does make it a request instead of a demand.
I got by okay with saying thank you. It was the please that did a bit of tripping me up.
But that’s okay because I know it takes time to ingrain something into your behavior and make it second nature. I find myself catching my “mistakes” of not saying please or thank you properly. Awareness is the first step in change.
So I will continue on my goal of aiming to say please and thank you correctly as often as possible. I know if I continue doing it, it will become a habit. And if the three week rule is right, I only have 2 more weeks to go until it becomes second nature.
So how did you guys do with the please and thank you’s?
Go on and write a post about your please and thank you experiences and then link up your post below. (Don’t forget to use the URL from your post not your site). The link will be open for a week. (Sunday-Sunday)
Make sure to come back on Tuesday for this week’s Kindness Club Prompt.
Can’t wait to read your stories.
Image:
DESTINY
© Eve | Flickr Creative Commons
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Written by Susie
I am me and also lots of other things like a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a daughter in law, a sister in law, a friend, an oncology nurse, a blogger, a life coach in training, an avid book reader, a chauffeur, a chef, a shopper, a maid and on some days a bit overwhelmed. On this blog I share my journey of striving to see the best in everyone and everything. Strive, because I don't always manage to. Yup, I am human. I would love to have you join me in learning lessons in positivity from life.
Filed under: communication, Featured, Kindness Club, Lesson of the Day · Tags: Kindness Club, please, thank
9 Responses to "Even With Good Intentions, Habits Take Time To Form"
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I love this idea! In Norwegian it sounds a bit strange to use please when you ask for something, but I’m actually very good at saying thank you and generally being polite. The best part is seeing my kids doing the same, I hope I can continue to be a good example for them!
Really? There is a language where they don’t use please? What do they say???
I was always taught 9 times the message. Again I can not find the source, but the idea is you need to do something at least nine times before people get the message you are trying to give.
I often find that I need to keep at something before it becomes second nature. One thing I do have to say is that I was taught to always say please and thankyou and I am bring the boys up to do the same.
I am a firm believer in what goes around comes around and treat as you wish to be treated.
Thank you for reminding me the importance of consistency
Thank you for reading and commenting. I also believe in the what goes around comes around.
with my work I say thank you or your are welcome all the time, but please until I read this and thought about should be used more often to when I show a customer how to something. Will work on it
Glad to hear. Let me know how it goes.
[...] Susie at New Day New Lesson asked us to think about how often and when we say please and thank you. This one was a bit of a [...]
Leaving a related link (as instructed – thanks Susie)
http://typecast2000.blogspot.com/2010/05/manners-maketh-man.html
Was a good post (even without the mention of me)
Thanks!