Two life changing events happened this week and all in the same place. The gym. 24 hour fitness to be exact. One: My Costco membership expired so I had to get another one. Two: They changed the water pressure on the drinking fountains. I know what you’re thinking, Tim! I can’t believe all those things happened in a week and you survived it! I know I know, all I can say is that at first I was afraid I was petrified, kept thinking how could I live without the gym by my side and I survived. Oh I survived, hey hey.
Alright so why do I bring up these two occurrences? They really helped me to realize how much of a creature of habit I am. I came into 24 hour fitness and was greeted by Steph and she already knew why I was there. This is because I registered my pass online. Just want to let you guys know that some 24 hour fitness’ do not allow you to use a Costco 2 year membership pass more than once and that was just what I was doing. However, the way to side step this is to register online and finish the fingerprinting process in the gym because they cannot turn you away at that point.
Back to the membership. This time around, I had to use a different phone number because my current membership was active for one more day so I put in my old home land line number. It’s amazing how back in the day we used to memorize every single person’s phone numbers and now I only know mine and select family members. If you haven’t been to 24 hour fitness, the login system requires you to enter your phone number then place your finger on a scanner to sign in. The next day I went back, I entered my old phone number without even a thought and placed my finger on the scanner where I was immediately greeted with a SEE RECEPTIONIST. I immediately recognized my fault so I entered the new number and was on my way. However, the following day I came back and did the same thing! That’s two days in a row. on the third day I put the new number but two days ago was the 4th day and I put the wrong number yet again. That’s 3 times!!! What a weird habit I didn’t even know I had or think about. It was the same feeling as the start of a new year in class and you write the year as 2015 instead of 2016 and suddenly, the realization that another year has passed gives you a sense of sorrow.
Secondly, the change in the water pressure on their drinking fountains. I went in, pressed the “press here” button, and received a facial so powerful it went up my nose as I retreated back like Vegeta when he saw Goku’s power level over 9,000!!!!! Water was dripping down my face like I was one of Pavlov’s dogs and the bell had just rang. This was no treat. I slowly approached the thingamabob and pressed the button before diving in. All was well. This must not have been a traumatic experience because I ended up getting two more facials this week before I think I have finally learned. I guess three is the lucky number here.
I started thinking how many millions of things I must do that are all habits that I will never notice until it is disrupted. I remember the first time I wore glasses, the door knocked them off my face as I opened it. Before this happened, I never realized how closely I walk to the door as I am opening it. Or another time when I had to take off my contacts with my right hand instead of my left, how peculiar of a feeling that was. Even taking my right contact out first proved to be a struggle, why? I’m sure everyone has their own habits and it’s interesting to take notice of them. Habits may be hard to change but you can teach an old dog new tricks. Old habits are kind of like mollusks and new habits are like hermit crabs. When a mollusk dies, a hermit crab moves in and occupies it’s empty shell.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
-Aristotle
Thoughts of Tim Chen 