Bad habits for me is something to escape, not to accept. Not doing good habits directly impact quality of life.
Even if you ultimately want to see your life optimized for “quality” (whatever that means!), the road to getting there sometimes involves being less self-reflective.
For many ambitious and high-key people, letting go and accepting themselves as they are is the untested hypothesis that’s actually been holding them back.
I embrace simplicity. The modern world has been designed in such a way that being busy is considered a badge of honor and we should be proud of our busyness. Being busy is a cult. And then there's the shadow work we all need to do behind the scenes like self-checkouts at supermarkets where we are not /paid/ to do that, but we do it anyway, along with many other examples I won't list out here.
And I even personally prefer the social moment of a cashier to performing self-checkout.
But from the “simplicity” perspective, it’s actually pretty reasonable to tally and tender your own purchases. It’s the kind of simple practical task we probably benefit from making time for.
If someone were to help you, of course they should get paid, but it’s only a quirk of history that that’s been the default.
I have this opinion about cooking, or walking the dog. Self-checkout I see as a missed opportunity for social interaction (or maybe not, considering the amount of times an employee comes over to unblock the system :)
Recently I've had a project at work which is just enjoying and engrossing, so I'm "choosing" to be busy with it at all hours at the expensive of other "good" habits. (Spending long hours "in the zone", if you will). I take the motivating and energizing peaks at work when I can get them.
I found this audio book enjoyable and accessible. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it does shed some interesting light on the "busy" epidemic we feel surrounded by.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Addicted-to-Busy-Audiobook/178753...
that doesn’t strike me as a good example. i’ll take unpaid checkout at the supermarket over hunting or growing food or making chocolate or making wine myself every single time.
And to be fair, I didn't get paid to stand in line and make small talk with whoever decided to talk to me, just to get to the cashier and wait while they cater to me. Shopping almost always involves an amount of unpaid work.
I think I was more incensed by skimming the introduction to Atomic Habits which is just the author boasting about themselves.
Reminds me of Marie Condo, who eased up on tidying, and it's no longer her top priority, after having kids: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/entertainment/marie-kondo-sto...
> After becoming a father and undertaking a major rewrite at work
You mention moral failure. Although the author mentions deep work, my suspicion is the rewrite at work is taking long hours. This assumes certain values too, where work is first.
> Here I am equipped with all the directions in the book, but I could not apply any of them
He could not do 1 min of meditation a day to build the habit? Or do one push up before showering?
From the blogpost I get the impression the author is prioritizing work and rationalizing it. At the same time, they are setting too ambitious targets in too many areas, instead of aiming for an incremental and sustainable habit.
This doesn’t sound like failure to me, it sounds like the normal consequences of your life becoming busier. Of course it is hard to resume those habits, especially if your life is still stressful and busy.
Maybe we should consider our own limits and be more accepting of why we might fall into bad habits. This obsession with balance and productivity does a lot of damage.
As a final point, everyone has a different tolerance for stress and productivity. But western morals assume all people are equal and any failing are thus a moral failure. This harms those of us who, through random environment + genetics have different strengths and weaknesses. Many ADHDers go through life thinking of themselves as shit people because they can never even get close to the moral standard of balance.