Habits are things that humans are used to doing like brushing our teeth, eating breakfast, washing our hands and many other things. Many habits are good for us, like the ones listed, but some of our habits are bad for us. They could affect our mental health or even physical health. Daily habits being taught from the book, “Atomic Habits” teach people how to improve their life with the Four Laws of Behavior Change. The laws include making it obvious, making it attractive, making it easy, and making it satisfying. We can follow these rules, which will later on make us better people.
One of my daily habits is playing wall ball. Wall ball is the act of taking a lacrosse ball and stick. Then throw the lacrosse ball against a wall and catch the ball in the head of the lacrosse stick. I usually do this right after school to make me better at lacrosse. When possible, I play wall ball on the tennis courts, which have a better bounce off the wall, otherwise, I do it at my house by myself. The way this follows the 4 behavior laws is by doing it every day, which is part of making it obvious. When I thought that I couldn’t get better, I watched videos about lacrosse skills. I saw improvement in my ability to catch the ball more and have better accuracy. I now see progress in my lacrosse skills. Also, practicing this sport is making it easy because on most days once I get home from school all I have to do is go outside and play lacrosse.
Another one of my habits was planking. Planking is when you go into a push-up position and hold that position for as long or as short as you can. When I did this, I usually did it in Language Arts or at home. Our Language Arts class did this because we needed to learn more about sticking with habits. Planking daily is following the first rule of the four behavior laws making it obvious in seeing improvement. When I plank, I slowly but surely get better and better over time, which I could physically see through timing myself.
In Boy Scouts, depending on your rank, you sometimes have to meet a fitness requirement. In the past, when I had to work towards this rank, I had to do push-ups, sit-ups, and walk or run a mile. I usually did this at eight or nine o’clock at night because of my tight schedule. Practicing these skills was mostly done at my house. I either timed myself or had my parents time me. The satisfying part about my Boy Scout requirement was that the progress that I showed over time was astonishingly good.
To sum up everything, habits are human routines which can positively or negatively affect the human body. Habits have made humans better throughout history by finding more effective ways to do things, like gardening instead of hunting and working out instead of lying on the couch. For my next daily habit, I will practice lacrosse shooting at the fences around the tennis courts when I get home from school, aiming at different specific points on the fences. This daily habit will make it easier over time because my accuracy will go up from the constant practice. What do you plan to do for your daily habits?