Kick the Habit

In the past few months, I seem to have taken up a new habit. 
I wish I was here to confess that I’ve started stamp collecting, or bird watching, or eating saltines over my kitchen sink.
But that’s not the case.  

My name is Heather, and I seem to have been bitten by the bug. The cursing bug.   

I don’t mean the occasional F-bomb-droppage, or only swearing when frustrated, in pain, or surprised.  And I don’t mean swearing during curse-laden-sing-a-long songs, or at the television during sporting events. 
What I do mean is throwing in many ‘flavorful’, yet not at all creative, words in my daily speech to an excess.  It crept up through the start of summer and has become a bit ridiculous as of late.

As in, my boyfriend may or may not have recently pointed it out, reminding me that when we first started spending time together, he was surprised by how much I cursed, and that since then, it’s only become more prevalent in my speech.  I started thinking about this, the growth of the swear-word-usage in my vocabulary, and I tried to trace back on memory road when and where it all started.

After a few minutes of sorting through situations past, I realized that I started my path towards cursing fiend out of insecurity.  I was extraordinarily nervous about fitting in with a specific group of people I had just met, and thought I needed to appear “cooler” and perhaps even “more tough.”  Apparently I had not only forgotten everything I have learned about how much I love myself in the past few years, but also regressed MAJORLY and was back in middle school.  Oops.

Once I admitted this out loud to Nicholas, I realized how ridiculous I had been, as this group of people I was so desperate to impress: they don’t typically curse themselves.  Who was I trying to fit in with?  What was I trying to prove?  And how did I manage to let the sprinkling of unnecessary swearing throughout conversation turn into a bit of, well, a cursing problem.

I analyzed the situation a bit more, tossing and turning the information in my head, [after all, I am nothing if not thorough in analyzing] and realized that I don’t particularly like cursing, especially if the whole reason I began speaking this way so often was born out of insecurity.  And so I decided I needed to kick the habit. 

And then, just in time, the girls at Freely Be contacted me about, well, Kick the Habit.

 From Freely Be:

Before you can change the world, you need to change your own. To share freedom, one must be free themselves. In an effort to bring that freedom, we are launching a fun FREEDOM rally- Kick the Habit.
 
Is there something in your life that is simply not the best for you? Addicted to smoking? Spending too much on cocktails? Taking cabs when you could be walking? Can’t stop the urge to shop?
 
Then it is time to kick the habit!

 
From August 1-31 we want to hear your stories and challenge you for the month to improve YOU!
 
So get ready to send us your emails, videos, tweets, etc. on how you Kicked the Habit and are encouraging others to do so as well. We’ll also be opening up the Freely Forums so you can discuss your kicked habit with others who might share the same one.

 
You take on the challenge – help others, help yourself.  Sign up for the rally by (clicking here) and join the discussion at (Freely Forums). We can’t wait to find out how you’re becoming free from your bad habit!

Is there a habit you’d like to kick from your life? Why not join the Kick the Habit movement for the month of August.  We can keep each other accountable and all that jazz.  What do you want to kick?