The Fruit Bowl

A few years back, my roommate and I had this fruit bowl sitting on the countertop in our kitchen.

It wasn’t on the end that faced the door to the apartment. That was where all our useful stuff went. You know, things like keys, wallet and loose change.

Nope; it was on the other end of the countertop. Down by the plant that never got watered, the letters that had to be opened, and bills that needed to be paid.

Around this time I often complained that I never ate enough fruit (which was true by the way). I made an effort to buy a few apples and bananas on my weekly trek to Trader Joe’s, but at the end of each week most of it ended up in the trash. Tut tut.

So I had this amazing idea… BING💡: You know that saying? “Out of sight, out of mind.” I decided that by moving the fruit bowl down to the closer end of the countertop where all the useful stuff was, in theory, I would be more inclined to snatch up a piece of fruit when I grabbed my keys in the morning.... Game-changer.

Proximity creates action. When we’re not physically close to something, or someone; we tend to not feel the emotional pull to want to do anything about it.

All too many times we have that ‘thing’ that we’ve been putting off for awhile. So what do we do? We push it to the back of our brain so we don’t have to think about it.

Maybe it’s that estranged family member we haven’t talked to in a lifetime. Until we bump into them on the street, it’s unlikely to be on the front of our mind.

Maybe it’s a fitness goal.... or journaling... or saving for that trip.

Perhaps if we tried to bring those procastinated decisions into our direct line of sight, into our day to day world, we’d be more likely to make a change.

I want to make more fruit bowl decisions. To bring that thing to the top of the to-do list, to make that phone call today.

Matt T