Uuuuuggghhh! Why is it soooo hard for me to get into the HABIT of____________________?
You fill in the blank. What ‘mountain’ is standing in your way? Or is it a molehill that you have let become a mountain? Maybe for you it’s exercise, switching up your diet to something healthier, reading your bible daily…? Maybe it’s getting into a new exercise routine your brain knows would benefit you, but your body has resistance-or visa-versa; maybe your body is screaming through aches and pains due to a sedentary lifestyle that has quietly slipped in, ‘Exercise me!’ For me, recently I have been trying to instill the habit of writing every day. It is a necessary activity that will help me reach personal goals I have set for myself and a welcome HABIT I would like to create. I keep find this rule chasing me when I desire to create positive change and create a new pattern/habit-that which I want to do, I don’t do and that which I don’t want to do, that, I do.
Another Rule: Usually it’s the smallest niggly things–totally solvable that we allow to stand between us and our desired habit. Let me explain.
I have wanted to get into a habit of writing every day. I have found that with my current schedule and personal life, interruptions abound! Self-employed, it seems there is something most days that I manage to let take me off track. In the deep recesses of my mind, I knew I needed to make a couple changes to get this habit to stick. I knew the answer was to get up earlier so that I could have some quiet, uninterrupted time to be still and write. Being still for me is one of my biggest challenges. I am not a still person. Nor am I a quiet person, though I love periods of quiet. I have a foot in both worlds-introversion and extroversion-I have a need for both. I love interacting with people, whether it be friends, family, or clients-I tend to drop what I am doing to engage if people reach out (if I can), this, however……can get me into productivity-trouble and can completely derail me, because, I’m the boss. I set my own schedule. I can, if desired, sleep in. I can take breaks when I want, I can work the hours that I want. Sounds kinda dreamy doesn’t it? I know-pinch me! Yes, it is dreamy-and in the same breath, dangerous! Yes, I have a lot of flexibility and freedom, but with that freedom comes responsibility and the nearly infinite capacity to spin throughout the day-not really accomplishing anything. If I don’t have any discipline, nothin’s getting’ done. There is no one breathing down my neck or crackin’ a whip saying, ‘Mush!’. So either I need to get up earlier so that I truly have time uninterrupted set aside with a fence around it to apply focused energy toward my writing habit which propels me toward desired goals, or I need to have stricter fences around my time during the day. Either approach will work. I just need to pick one and go with it. I tend to not like being that strict with my time, having more flexibility during the day to be interruptable, taking care of the needs of others, helping out when needed-so…..that makes it obvious an earlier wake-up-and-get-going-time needs to happen. I’ve tried and failed to get the writing thing done consistently during the day, cuz, you know-dishes, laundry, clients, friends and family, social media, helping others…it doesn’t take much to, like Houdini make time magically evaporate.
Step one: become aware of the time stealers. Bullet-point journal daily for a couple weeks your time stealers. Note where you are getting taken off-focus. What are your time stealers; (social media, tv, un-fenced chit chat)….? How much time are you giving to time stealers? If you eradicated the time stealers, how much time would you then have to reallocate to what your priorities?
Step two: What are your priorities? (clients, actual work, time with kids/spouse, cooking healthy meals more and eating out less…etc) Do you want to allow the time stealers to continue, if so you need to create more time-get up earlier or stay awake later, or both to instill your desired habit, or create boundaries during your already waking hours to make set time for that new habit.
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