December 8, 2025
Every day on Low Two Pair I explore how the Thought of the Day and Question of the Day can work together to uncover something useful, something honest, or at least something that makes me laugh at myself. Today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day circle around one big idea. We get really good at the things we repeat. Sometimes that is a good thing. Other times it just means we have perfected a bad habit or a tired phrase that probably should have retired with Blockbuster and dial up.
Thought of the Day: You are more likely to perform what you practice
This Thought of the Day hit me right between the eyes this morning. You are more likely to perform what you practice. It sounds simple, but it explains almost everything about why our lives look the way they do.
If I practice patience, I show more patience. If I practice gratitude, I see more to be grateful for. And if I practice staying annoyed, well, I get very good at that too.
Most of us think we rise to the level of our goals. Instead, we fall to the level of our habits. I have written before about how much of adulthood feels like fighting the urge to coast on autopilot, and how easy it is to slip back into old patterns when we are tired or overwhelmed. When I wrote about the days that seem to fill up with little frustrations in my post about clutter and anger creeping into the house like a slow leak, it was really the same lesson. Whatever I let happen on repeat becomes the default setting.
Practicing something is more than doing it once. It is choosing it again and again until it builds a groove. That can be a groove of kindness or a groove of irritation. It can be the groove of order or of chaos. It can be the groove of being present for my kids or being lost in my phone.
When I think about the version of myself I want to perform more often, it is usually the version I do not give enough reps to. I want to be calmer, but I practice urgency. I want to be healthier, but I practice convenience. I want to be confident, but I practice worrying about things I cannot control. It is a humbling realization, but it is also a freeing one. If I do not like what I am performing, I can change what I am practicing.
Question of the Day: What is a common saying that annoys you?
My answer is simple. I hate when someone says quote, unquote. It bothers me in a way that probably speaks to how tired I am, but still. Half the time the person saying it does not even know what it means. They say the words without actually quoting anything, or they drag the phrase out like it adds intellectual weight to whatever nonsense they are about to say.
To me it feels like verbal clutter. It reminds me of the way people sometimes talk on autopilot. The phrase slips out because they heard someone else say it and now it is just stuck in the rotation. I talked about something similar in my post on the strange gap between what we expect from a week and what actually happens. We walk into conversations with the same unconscious scripts we walk into our days with. The same lines. The same jokes. The same filler words. And we repeat them because they are easy.
I am far from perfect. I have my own fallback phrases. My kids copy them, which is how I know I need to get my act together. Nothing wakes you up like hearing your 4-year-old repeat one of your sarcastic throwaway comments with perfect tone. Kids are mirrors, and mirrors do not lie.
But there is something valuable in noticing the little phrases that make your jaw clench. Usually they reveal something about how you want communication to feel. Honest. Direct. Clear. Alive. I want conversations that feel real, not rehearsed. That means cutting some of my own bad lines too.
If I want better words, I have to practice better words. It is the same lesson as the Thought of the Day, just through a different doorway. We are all walking around performing the habits of speech we have practiced for years. We might as well practice sayings and sentences that make life better, not more annoying.
For more on how simple words shape the tone of a day, you can read my post where I answered what people misunderstand about me most. The patterns show up everywhere once you start looking.
Your Turn
What is a common saying that makes you cringe? Drop it in the comments so we can compare notes and maybe laugh at ourselves a little. And if you want daily Questions and Thoughts sent straight to you, join the free email list. One minute a day. A better groove to practice.
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