You may ask yourself "Well, How did I get here?"

I have expanded...
And not in a good way.  As Parkinson's Law states - the work expands to fill the time allotted - the same can go for - the stuff expands to fill the space.
Two things I have noticed about my personal expansion.  That makes me scratch my head and ask really - how did i get here?
In 2007 I bought a car, I had owned a car back in University for a year to help take my grandmother around, but didn't like having the overhead of the car and sold it.  I survived for 8 years without one after that. (For full disclosure, my significant others during that time own vehicles or had friends who lived close).  But I didn't own a car and I would take public transportation, bike or even walk.  I was surprised how little I relied on the car.  I also was in pretty good shape.
But in 2007 I bought a car - I was living in Ventura CA and well, you really need a vehicle in Southern California as distances are far and public transportation is spotty.  Now 4 years later I cannot believe how reliant I have become on that car.  I have now fit my life around the convenience of jumping in and getting somewhere in 5 minutes.
So this month I had to say to myself - ENOUGH - you are becoming so lazy, I was driving to my Yoga class that was 1.5 miles away.  Riding my bike would add 10 more minutes to the commute and burn about 50 calories. So no more convenient driving - I have to ask myself, do I NEED to drive?  If I planned better could I walk, bike or carpool?  90% of the time the answer is yes. So that is the new plan.

The other area of expansion is in my home.  When we moved to Encinitas we found a home larger than the one we were living in Ventura.  Once everything was moved in we have two completely empty rooms.  Well 18 months later - we have a full house.  I will say most of the new furniture has come from Andy's woodworking projects.  Regardless I did have a hand in filling up the space - Parkinson was right, I could not let that empty space sit there empty for long before I added a plant, a chair, whatever the space needed.
Now I look around at all of the stuff and think - how did I get here?

Are we just destined to grow into habits or is there some way of steering clear?  Well at least now I see my behavior and maybe I can try and change it?