Full transparency: I haven't posted in a minute because I've been working on reorganizing my schedule and haven't quite found my niche yet. Getting a "bug" for a week didn't help much, either, but always working around it and moving forward!
Thanks for staying with me here, appreciate you 🤗
With that said....
How many daily habits would you say you have?
If you were to list them out, would they look like this:
Brush my teeth
Make my bed
Eat breakfast
Drive to work / log onto work
Make dinner
Help the kids with whatever
Go to the gym /workout
Feed pets
House cleaning /chores
Laundry
Take a shower/bathe
Without being more specific, would you have included:
Scroll Instagram / Facebook / TikTok /Twitter
Read email
Read/watch news
Flip tv channels
Text messaging /WhatsApp/Messenger
Sit and chitchat about nothing/everything/gossiping
Play phone games
Play computer games
Play console games
Play relationship games (kidding!)
Take hour(s) nap
Having nightcap(s)
I had a discussion recently with someone about this, and a point I had emphasized was this - It doesn't matter what kind of thing you are doing, if you start doing it most days of the week or times of the month, it's enough to call that a habit. It's more than ordinary. And whatever new thing you're doing "more than the ordinary," means you are making or taking specific time out of your day for it. In most cases, when a new habit forms, a regular one that had already been in place, gets REplaced.
A question we need to ask ourselves then, is: Am I replacing a good habit with a bad one? Maybe it's not necessarily a "bad" habit, but does it hinder me from getting other things done? Maybe not today or tonight, but what about tomorrow morning - will you be dying when that alarm goes off? Or will you want to stop mid-afternoon to take a long nap, thus making you unmotivated to do anything else the rest of the day? Recently, I mentioned to my coach that I felt like weekends were my "catch-up" days, which made me feel like a sad, utterly frustrated hamster constantly running in a wheel. Can you relate to the feeling?
Are the "little" habits we don't name out of the 2nd list, or maybe we are a little embarrassed to call a "habit," not so little after all? And maybe we don't feel like we aren't wasting time on these things, but they are still affecting us.
For example, while at work, do you always reach for your phone when you have a second and check social media or messages? Maybe it's not that we are separately "wasting time" rather, we are using these habits to fill our mind so much that we feel that we don't have time for anything else. What are we looking at/doing: is it positive, does it feed our minds towards the day we are trying to accomplish? If not, it can be super draining mentally.
So, remember it's also the quality of the habit.
I personally love the quote, "Starve the distractions, feed your focus."
I remember hearing a talk where the speaker likened our motivations, inspirations, and passion to a fire (as it usually is) and how you have to fan the embers in order to feed the flames. If you starve them of oxygen, the fire will die.
Now, I know the habits I mentioned are more on a daily scale, but what if we "level up," and apply this to the bigger picture - the path we want to ultimately take towards our bigger goals in life. In that case, we should also be building daily "micro habits" that fan the embers of those major goals, right? If you wait to only throw a log on the fire every time you have but a spark, you'll never have a fire, much less keep one. But on the other hand, if you just let it keep burning and never do anything, the fire will either get overwhelming and out of control.
You see, it's the little steps we must learn to navigate in shuffling the wood (placing our habits in the right time slots each day) and adding to it while the fire keeps burning, even when it's ridiculously hot and irritatingly smoky. (Insert whichever personal circumstances that would fit the pressures and irritations you may be experiencing or through this process)
All in all, if you feel "out of sorts" or like you can't get a smooth routine down with everything you do daily, take a peek as to how much time might be slithering away with some of the "mindless" activities I mentioned in the second group. Always and immediately adjust as needed. Because, if your habits aren't building the day you want, then you're not going to have the week, month, year.... life you are working so very hard for. (This even means spiritually speaking for those of you who are on that path as well) Eventually, we will feel stuck and utterly frustrated. Plus, you will know when this is happening or starting to, because your brain and body will be at war. Your brain always feels exhausted, while your body wants to keep running. That's never a fun time.
In the words of my wise coach, "Don't get stuck. Always seek clarity, and never hesitate in getting it." - You deserve to have mostly good days, and you certainly have the power to control that. Let's get after it, friends 💛
.
.
.
.
.
So, in starting this last half of 2021, how are your habits? Are they moving you towards the days you want and need, or are you feeling stuck?
Reach out, share your expressions!
Comments