Whether we admit it or not, most of us are creatures of habit.

Yet, ask people if they are creatures of habit and their first reaction is to say, “not really.”

Some think it means someone set in his way and inflexible to change, or someone rigid in behavior, repeatedly doing the same thing in the same way.

Here’s a question for you. When you sit at your kitchen or dining room table, do you sit in the same place all the time? Most of us do.

While I was lived in Pennsylvania, I always sat at the exact place. When circumstances changed and I could have sat at any of the six chairs because I was alone, I still sat at the same place where I always did.

That’s not true in my Florida home. Because my favorite place to eat is on my sunny lanai, I have to keep changing chairs, depending on the slant of the sun.

Basically though, we usually prefer to sit in the same place most of the time.

When a nice couple invited me to dinner for the first time, the wife told me to go in the dining room and take a seat while she brought dinner to the table.

She laughed when I asked her where she wanted me to sit. “Anywhere you want,” she said, “we’re not fussy about where we sit.”

Yet, after she brought dinner to the table she asked me to change seats because I was in the place where she always sat.

“I sit there,” she said, “because it’s easy to get up and my husband sits at the other end.”

I understand what she meant by sitting where you can easily get up. Like my hostess, I’m the one who keeps jumping up to get others what they need. I always sit where it’s most convenient to do this.

We all have a bit of behavior that falls into the category of habit, and that can be good. Quite good, in fact.

Show me a successful athlete and I’ll show you someone who relies on habit and repeated behavior to build skills.

If we want to get good at something, we repeat the behavior that makes it happen.

One might say I’m a creature of habit when it comes to my writing. For decades when I worked on a newspaper, I wrote my weekly column first thing Monday morning.

I never allowed myself to make excuses for not doing it then. If it was Monday, I was writing my column, regardless of what else was going on in my life.

Even now that I’m not going into an office to write, I still write my column every Monday. Sometimes, it’s funny the way it’s ingrained in me that Monday is my writing day.

When friends invite me to go on a long boating trip on Sunday night or to take a class on a Monday, I say I can’t because Monday is my writing day.

Some might that call being rigid. I call it being disciplined.

OK, I admit it’s also being a creature of habit.

Some might thing that’s a bad trait. It’s not. Sticking to a routine can guarantee you will accomplish what you want.

My mother was definitely a creature of habit, and she made it work for her.

If it was Monday, she did the wash. If it was Tuesday, she ironed. And so went the predictability of her days.

Her meal planning also followed a set pattern. She made steak every Wednesday and made her delicious homemade spaghetti every Thursday.

When my friends came to visit, my mom always invited them to stay for dinner. I noticed friends most often came on a Thursday so they would get invited to mom’s Italian feast.

We used to tease my mother about her adherence to a set routine. But I also knew that was why her house always looked like she was expecting a visit from a Good Housekeeping photographer.

There was a time when Mom’s rigid routine caused laughter in the newsroom.

One Wednesday when I had just started my first newspaper job my mom telephoned our office to ask why I wasn’t home.

“Dinner’s ready,” she said. It’s on the table.”

I told her I couldn’t leave just because it was after 5. We work until deadlines are met and our stories are finished.

Mom learned there were days when she would have to keep my dinner on the stove until I got there.

My fellow reporters laughed at the thought of someone who eats at the same time every day.

Yet, now that I’m retired, I still find I stick to a somewhat regular dinner time and structured days.

I remember a few times saying I wished I could have more days without structure and without constraints of a clock. I never thought that day would come because I’ve had a habit of filling my days with activities, even in retirement.

Be careful what you wish for.

This thing called a pandemic came along and changed the behavior of most of us. It certainly has for me.

I now have no set structure to my days, no scheduled activities, and no routine. It’s hard to fill the long lonely days of social distancing.

I’ll take a set routine any day over an empty calendar.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.