Unhabitual Creatures of Habit

As humans, we are creatures of habit. This has been well documented by any number of psychologists, sociologists, etc. However, what they often fail to study is how the people who live even the most unroutine lives still find ways to fit habit into them.

Anyone who knows me knows that I typically live one of the most irregular lives for forcing a routine into. What time I go to bed and get up (if I sleep at all); what, if, and when I eat; and where I go and how long I'll spend somewhere are all extremely flexible and fluid, and rarely stay the same for more than any 24-hour period.

However, I am still a creature of habit. For example, I can tell you /exactly/ how I dry off when I get out of the shower. That shower doesnt have to have been at the same time of day each day, doesnt even have to be the same type—be it in a bathtub or in a standing shower, etc. But no matter what, any time I am wet and drying off with a towel, I will always do it the exact same way—face, then arms (left to right), then legs (left to right), then back, then front, then hair. This never changes, and if I do try to alter it and dry in some other order, I don't actually feel dry, and typically will end up going back and drying in the normal way all over again.

There are hundreds of these little “habits” I can find throughout my day, no matter how random that day might be. The key question I have, though, is /why/.

Why do we feel the need to have routines and set up little habits, even when we may be the least routine-oriented person alive?

Some, I believe, has a good deal to do with how our minds work. We are wired to function on associations. Those associations can be extremely complex and deep rooted, like a woman distrusting a man instinctively because he has a similar scent to her abusive father, or they can be extremely simple, like associating the color of a shirt with a n apple because they're similar in shade.

Those associations are essential to our ability to grow, learn, and function within our daily lives and within society. It is because of those associations that we have the ability to speak, write, or read...someone at some point taught us that the letter “T” is associated with a specific sound when spoken, and that that in turn is also associated with any number of words, and the associated combinations mean different things. When we were babies, we learned that that feeling in our stomachs meant we were hungry, so we would cry and someone would come feed us, so we then associated that hunger with food and learned to eat when hungry. However, because we would cry, we also associated the crying with food, which made us feel better...thus a good part of the root reason there are so many people who are emotional eaters.

Every association eventually leads to a reaction, and the reactions eventually become habitual. These habits are essential for our ability to function efficiently within our lives. Can we change them? Certainly...but the greater question might be if we really need to or should change them. If we are fighting habits for the sake of fighting them, we are fooling ourselves, because there will always be habits, by our very natures. So, while we may not like to think of ourselves as creatures of habit, we will still tie our shoes the same way, we will still put the same leg in first when putting on our pants...and I will still dry off after getting out of the shower the exact same way, every time. Because, at the root, we are creatures of habit.