Dear LPG readers,

I discovered even more of my tablet's many secrets in the small hours of yet another sleepless night not so long ago. I came across one of those webpages with a title that I could not help but look closely at. It was a list of bad habits that are arguably universal. There were also many opportunities to sign up and learn to control them, but I wanted to pass on that.  

Although I was surprised, it was a very long but interesting list.  Had I been asked about my bad habits, without having seen the list that the internet placed before me, I might have been able to mention a few but, the worrying thing for me was that, as I took in each of the habits mentioned, there were quite a few that I have never considered habits let alone bad ones before.  The truth is that each item I read about left me feeling guilty because I have indulged in so many of them.  

Having checked out the top 20 items, I questioned the reason for the order they had been placed in and deduced that, if the worst one were at the top of the list, most pensioners would find themselves either too ignorant to indulge in at least four mentioned or born early enough not to have considered them at all, let alone as a bad habit.  The three which had anything to do with social media are still likely to leave most of us pensioners either uninterested or without the time for getting involved, while tucking into too much fast food is something most of us oldies gave up way before we got to retirement.   

While I am sure that, with a bit of determination, the majority of us would be able to cure ourselves of many of the habits on the list, I think that, once we have passed the retirement threshold, we have to have a few bad habits to keep life interesting.  

Another point is that life in general would be lacking if we were to stop having any of the habits on the list, and, as long as we don’t all get drawn in by all of them, we should be OK.  Without a healthy sprinkling of people indulging in various practices on a relatively small scale, life would certainly be less interesting …  

If we are honest, I think that each of us never really loses the wish to be the best person that we can and perhaps, once we no longer need to work for a living offloading some of our bad habits might help us to feel a sense of getting nearer to that goal but, when it comes to a lot of items on the list, perhaps it is over indulgence which is the real misdemeanour. However, the day when there is a unilateral agreement on exactly where the threshold is has to be as far away as ever.  

I want to make a suggestion.  Perhaps we should get together once a month with friends to focus on one ‘not so bad’ bad habit by indulging semi-publicly.  The odd packet of biscuits, a visit with friends to a fast-food outlet or a pack of sweets shared between friends can’t be all bad (health permitting).

Even though mine is considered a bad habit, I have no intention of giving up sleeping with my tablet under my pillow and at the ready any time soon. 

NF, Crofton Park

NF shares an internet list of bad habits for readers to ponder…

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LPG found a few snippets of internet advice which might help when it comes to breaking bad habits…

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