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The Kettle Situation

I have worked out that I do not drink water, I drink whatever is nearest, and the nearest thing is always tea.

{'key': 'nora', 'masthead': 'Nora Bennet', 'tagline': 'Documenting my days', 'author': 'Nora Bennet', 'advertiser': 'Hailey Lane', 'disclosure': 'Paid partnership with Hailey Lane · Nora Bennet is a fictional columnist and her photographs are AI-generated', 'cta': 'See the five on haileylane.com', 'logo': 'nora-logo.png', 'avatar': 'img/nora-portrait.jpg'} · June 2021 · 3 min read · 0 picks · haileylane.com

There is a mug on my desk that has been through four separate lives today. Tea, then water, then tea again, then something I have chosen not to investigate.

The nearest thing wins

I have never once in my life thought I want a glass of water and then gone and got one. What happens is that I am thirsty, and I reach for whatever is within arm's length, and whatever is within arm's length is the mug.

So the mug gets refilled with tea, because the kettle is right there and the tap is four steps away, and four steps is apparently the distance at which I give up on myself.

The honest fix is embarrassing

Everything that has ever worked for me was about where an object sits, not about deciding to be better. I did not start reading more because I resolved to read more. I started because I moved a book to the arm of the sofa.

I suspect the same is true of nearly everything people call discipline. It is mostly furniture.

So

I have put something large on the desk and filled it in the morning, and the mug has been demoted to tea only. Two days in, which is not long enough to claim anything.

I will report back, or I will quietly never mention it again, and you will know which one happened.

['Anyway. Four steps. That was the whole obstacle. Ten years of it.']
Nora