Welcome to the week 2 of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a sustainable living tip for the week. This week, I’m thinking about habits, and shopping, and how shopping can become a habit.
The Sunday Spark – Week 2
On my mind this week: What’s the big deal about habits?
This week, our global speaker series at work featured James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. I haven’t read the book yet. I’ve put a hold on at the library, but it’s in high demand so I might have to wait a while.
Hearing James talk made me think how we often think of habits in a negative light. Why is it that we hear a lot about bad habits or annoying habits, and less about good habits?
In his talk, James referred to habits as “the compound interest of self improvement.” He suggests scaling down big goals into small daily habits, starting with something you can do in two minutes a day. The premise is that the habit has to be established before it can be improved. This thinking aligns with the approach I’ve decided to take to goal setting in 2023, with smaller monthly goals instead of larger annual goals.
What do you think? Can you develop good habits and achieve your goals starting with just two minutes a day?
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Three highlights of the week
Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- On Sunday afternoon, I attended a baby shower for my niece who is expecting a baby boy later this week. It was a fun gathering.
- Tuesday evening was my first band rehearsal of the new year. We welcomed some new members and had a fun, high-energy jam session.
- On Friday, I went into the office to meet with one of my co-workers. We went out for lunch at a sushi restaurant near the office. I haven’t been out for sushi since before the pandemic so it was a real treat.
Three things I learned this week
I’m a big believer in lifelong learning, but most learning happens outside of formal education in the “School of Life”. Here are three things I learned this week:
- I learned a new word! Oniomania is the technical name for shopping addiction or compulsive buying disorder.
- In the talk by James Clear, he said the best learning comes from practice, not planning. Sometimes our need to over-plan can paralyze us. The best thing to do is jump in and start doing.
- I always thought the purpose of cigarette filters was to filter out harmful tar and nicotine, but I learned this week that isn’t the case. Filters were actually created to stop the cigarette from sticking to the lips and to prevent tobacco from getting in the mouth. Whatever the reason for their existence, cigarette butts are toxic for marine life. A 2019 cleanup by Ocean Conservancy collected 4.2 million cigarette butts. If you smoke, please dispose of your butts responsibly. (Source: Earth 911)
Sustainable living tip: Break the shopping habit and buy nothing
Earlier this month, I wrote about shopping and consumerism in the my response to the latest post in the Climate Change Collective series. In a comment thread with another member of the collective, I noted how I actually buy very little these days. This brought to mind this quote from Joshua Becker that’s one of my favourites:
The most environmentally friendly product is the one you didn’t buy.
Joshua Becker
You might not be suffering from oniomania, but reducing consumption can lead to big environmental and personal benefits. This week’s sustainable living tip is to buy less, or to take it one step further and buy only essential items.
A couple of years ago, I did a Buy Nothing Challenge for Lent. It was a great learning experience and helped to reset my relationship with stuff. If you feel like you’re ready to take on a similar challenge, here are some posts to help you out:
- Mindful shopping tips to save you money
- Buy Nothing Challenge for Lent
- What I learned from the Buy Nothing Challenge
Thanks for dropping by and reading Week 2 of The Sunday Spark.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on developing good habits. Is two minutes a day enough? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.
I have got into the habit of doing small things right away. For instance, I prefer to quickly wash a dish or cup rather than wait for then to pile up. At work, I would rather mark a few books at break and lunch than have a massive pile at the end of the day.
That sounds great. It’s always better to tackle something small rather than letting it pile up into a bigger job. What’s that old saying? “A stitch in time saves nine.”
I’m big on habits and rituals. I’m a fan of BJ Fogg and his theory of habit stacking. There are things we already do, so add to them. And we already do have habits, we just don’t necessarily think of them like that. Like in the morning I get up and have a glass of water. I take my vitamins, feed the pets and empty the top row of the dishwasher. I do these things almost by rote but I added the vitamins to this rotation last year when my doctor said I needed to start calcium. I could drone on about this all day so I’ll stop here
I like that idea of habit stacking. I’ve been thinking about that with my fitness routine. I think in February, I’m going to add planks to the end of my daily workout to see how long I can work up to. Thanks for dropping by!
It’s funny because adding planks was the example Fogg uses in his book to illustrate habit stacking
Ha ha. That is funny! It makes a lot of sense, though.