Welcome to Sensible Harmony’s first “Five Random Habits” discussion!  From time to time, I plan to post a few short thoughts on five randomly-picked habits, including both good and bad habits.  The idea here is to encourage everyone to start thinking about specific habits and the roles they play in our lives.  By analyzing and controlling our habits, we can minimize the bad ones and encourage the good ones.  Without further ado, here are today’s five random habits:

1. Speaking Before You Think:  This is easy to do at times when emotions are running high or time is short.  However, speaking before thinking, while understandable at times, could cause serious damage to one’s reputation, friendships, and status at work.  If you don’t know the answer to something, simply say “I don’t know” instead of saying any quick answer that comes to mind.  If you feel wronged in a situation, consider all sides of the matter before verbally lashing out or taking other actions.  Think it through.
2. Trying New Foods:  Getting into the habit of trying new foods can be a rewarding and educational experience.  You may hate the food, but then you never have to eat it again!  Conversely, you may like the food and thus expand your cuisine options for the future.
3. Drinking Extra Calories:  This habit is a sneaky one that many people don’t even notice until the pounds add up to significant weight gains.  Regularly drinking sugary liquids or any calorie-rich beverage is unnecessary and, at times, unhealthy.  Consider replacing at least a few of those drinks with water or low-calorie options (drink water anyway!).  At the very least, consider keeping track of the calories you drink and include them as part of your overall calorie intake for the day.
4. Looking at Ingredients on Food Packaging:  When you know what is in your food, you’ve taken an important step toward eating healthier.  Realizing that those yummy chips contain MSG or trans fats might discourage you from eating them.  If you don’t know what is in your food, how can you eat responsibly?  Learning more about the foods you eat doesn’t have to be complicated; just read the packaging!
5. Printing Every Interesting Website or E-mail:  So you have a computer screen and an Internet connection, but you prefer to read everything on printed paper.  You could get a better computer monitor with a high contrast ratio, read electronic documents on an e-ink based e-book reader, or just read fewer things on the computer.  However, printing every single e-mail, joke, or interesting website just creates paper clutter and wastes resources.  Resisting the temptation to print everything might save you money as well.  Step away from that print button! 

Within the habit discussions, I purposely didn’t designate whether I thought each habit was a good or bad one.  I’ll tell you what I think now: numbers 1, 3 and 5 are bad habits while numbers 2 and 4 are good ones.  That’s just my opinion.  What’s yours?  (Feel free to discuss in the comments section!)