Ben Sloot

At the start of 2020 breaking a bad habit seemed impossible. For 365 days, wait, was it a leap year?

For 366 days, I finally stopped chewing on my fingernails. Grade schoolers exhibit more will power than I can muster while commuting, working on complex projects at the office, or sitting on the couch bored.

I can’t believe I made it. The first few weeks challenged me, but after February the habit, or broken habit, came naturally.

I decided to start a few new Seinfeldesque “dont break the chain” habits for 2021.

• DadBod – workout, stretch or meditate everyday
• DadThought – read everyday
• Dry January – this might go longer

I’ve hedged my bets by declaring my intentions a couple weeks after the start of the year, but so far so good.

I’ve had a bit of lower back pain for the past, oh, 6 months. I’ve added some intentional stretching to release tension caused by tight hamstrings and my super tight butt.

I’ve got a well established reading habit. In fact, today I just hit 200 days in a row reading. I usually balance a fiction book with a non-fiction book. With some extra time for the MLK federal holiday today, I finished up How to Win Friends and Influence People and the first installment of the new Star Wars: High Republic, Light of the Jedi.

Psst… *speaks softly* I count audiobooks too (the latter).

Finally, the last couple years I participated in Dry January. I love bourbon, rye and random whiskey YouTube channels. However, taking a step back for a month helps me maintain a healthy, adult relationship with alcohol, which for me means a drink every couple of nights when I feel like it.

I’m too old for hangovers, or more accurately, I’m too old to recover. Dry January speeds by without much thought save a few unwatched videos in my YouTube subscriptions.

So those are the streaks planned for the month and year for me and these beautiful fingernails.