HALT

You know about HALT? Hungry-Angry-Lonely-Tired? It’s a brief checklist to monitor the fullness of your tank in each of these areas. Try it out right now if you want. Am I hungry? Am I angry? Lonely? Tired?

Recovery circles use this one a lot. It’s imperative to check off these resource boxes lest an insanely trivial excuse pop up and knock us off the wagon. This is the case with all folks, though. Whenever we are resource-depleted, our mood and decision-making suffer. Snickers built a whole ad campaign on it. We’re not ourselves when we’re hungry. We are, of course. But the irritable and impatient versions. The version that gets us into trouble.

When you can identify the problem, you can apply the solution. You’re hungry? Grab some food. Tired? Take a nap, take a break, or plan to get to bed earlier tonight. Lonely? Call a friend, make plans, rub a dog’s belly.

It's not always as easy as this. Things are complex sometimes. People are hungry for many more reasons than just needing a Snickers. But I’m surprised in my own life how checking in here helps keep me out of not the earth-shattering situations, but the ones that are inconvenient and avoidable. If I could cut those in half each week, I’d be smiling a lot more.

This week is a simple message – check for HALT when you catch yourself about to lose it or break down or start an argument or quit a job. This won’t be your first instinct. Your first instinct will be to plow through, stay upset, indulge some bullshit, unproductive thought. But for your second attempt, try this one on. Just to see.

Go get ‘em this week.