User blog:LadyAzur/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Habits!

Habits. We all have them. But most of the time we don't recognize them or don't call them "habits". Perhaps that's why so many people don't know what to do with the habits section in Habitica.

There are the good habits, like getting up on time or eating breakfast. We all have them and most often don't even think about it. We simply live them, and our day is running smoothly.

Then there are the bad ones, like eating fast food or smoking. We all know that we have some bad habits, and we try to ignore them until next new year's eve. Bad idea. If you ignore bad habits for too long, they will turn into ugly habits, and ugly habits are making your life much harder.

Ugly habits are not only bad. They are seductive, and they will prevent you from doing your good habits. For example, if you want to do more sports, but don't stop eating too much fast food, you'll gain more weight, which can increase joint pain. You see, bad habits can affect your health.

In Habitica, it's the same. If you have bad Habits in your tasklist and click on the (-), your avatar will lose some Health Points. The habit itself will become more red (starting from yellow), causing you to get more damage with each click on the (-).

But you can - and should! - add positive habits to your list, too! Insert good habits with a (+) and click them every time you're doing good. You want to eat more vegetables? Add a "Veggie Habit" to your tasklist and click it every time you have a portion of vegetables. The habit will turn green and then blue, if you keep on eating vegetables, but will return to yellow, if you don't.

Ok, we talked about good and bad habits. But why can we have habits in Habitica with both a (+) and a (-)? Isn't a habit either positive or negative?

The (+/-) habits are for "instead of" habits. For example, when you want to take the stairs more often instead of the lift. You took the lift? Click the (-). You chose the stairs? Click the (+). These habits won't change their color back to yellow, because it's your choice if you build up a good habit or fall back into negative habits. If you don't have a lift, you don't need a (+/-) habit.

Or you decide to drink more water instead of sugary soft drinks. There are so many possibilites! And I know that it's not easy to get rid of a negative habit. That's why you can add them to your Habitica tasklist, to keep an eye on them. Perhaps it seems as if it does not matter if you follow the path of virtue or not. In real life, nothing will happen if you drink either a lemonade or a glass of water.

But your Avatar will be rewarded with gold and experience - or take some damage, if you lose track. Habitica habits raise the awareness for your own behavior. And if you see that you are on a good way to change your life to the better, consider deleting the habit and add it as a daily to count your streaks.

But that's another story.