Nobody else put it first

Everyone who knows you carries a short description of you. So do you. Yours has had the wrong line on top. The habit sat up there, the first fact you knew about yourself, and every plan, promise and good day got filed below it. The cigarette took the headline and left you the small print.

Now hear how your people would describe you to a stranger. A friend leads with your laugh. Someone else says you get things done. Somebody mentions you always pick up the phone. Far down the list, maybe, it comes up in passing. They had you in proportion the whole time.

Habits swell in the mind of the person handling them. You handled it so often that it touched everything and began to feel like everything. But size isn't importance. You kept being a friend. You kept your word more than you remember. And God always knew you by your name, not your habit. The rest of you was never on hold.

Rewrite the headline before bed. Lead with what you give the people around you. Then what you keep showing up for. The habit goes at the bottom, in the past tense, half a line. Look how much fits above it.