Step Before You Run (30/32)

So there’s this thing that I have been obsessed with, more than anything else for at least a year now. And that thing would be habits. I’m obsessed with good habits, how to create them, people that have them and how they did it. As well as bad habits. Recognizing mine, criticizing myself, trying to fix them, failing to replace them, the list goes on and on.

So of course upon coming across How I Became A Morning Person, Read More Books, And Learned A Language In A Year by Belle Beth Cooper I thought well that sounds like my dream. Let’s read. So I did.

And I got excited. More than just inspired I felt hopeful, even relieved. Because the second I started reading I was thinking this is great and started to think of what I want to focus on. In turn as I kept reading she talked to me as if we were in the same room. Telling me I’m going overboard again and it wont work that way. She explains how you have to be patient for it to work. More specifically you have to actually listen to all those amazing self-improvement guru’s when they say to pick one thing to focus on at a time. At which point you take the tiniest step towards tackling said task. Building on that step over time until the habit is fully developed and seemingly natural.

This is what I would love this to  look like for me personally:

1. Goal: Write Everyday 
   • Starting Point: (In July I write everyday because I’m doing #postaday, but I want to continue writing daily without having to blog daily) Write one sentence a day. Whether towards a blog, a journal, a book or a poem; it does not matter.
2. Goal: Create Daily (meaning work on creative projects in someway everyday, whether it’s sketching, draping or sewing)
   • Starting Point: Spend 5 minutes a day on a current creative project

The hardest part for me is going to be not jumping into trying to work on a bunch of habits at one time.

Being aware of that and knowing that it generally takes quite a long time to develop  a habit that is going to stick. Which is what determines if your ready to jump to the next habit. I strategically put writing daily as my first habit change. Since I have already been working on this habit for 30 days via #postaday. In hopes that it will take a bit less time to salsify this first habit before having to move on top the next.

Also, I deleted the two of the four habits I originally broke down in this post upon a second read. As if to declutter and free my mind of the t00 many thoughts occurring at once.

Another important part of the process Cooper touched on was linking your new habit to an existing habit. In order to create a smooth transition/routine even easier she also discussed setting tools in place ahead of time. Tools are things that make it easier for you to achieve your new habit. Example Copper kept a book on her nightstand,  then when she went to bed she barely had to reach in order to achieve her goal of reading one page a day.

My Personal Links (and the tools to make them stick):

1. New: Writing
   • Old: Coffee
     • Link: Bring Computer/Notebook with me to kitchen when I make coffee and start writing while it brews
2. New: Create
   • Old: Shower (I have a very inconsistent schedule therefore I may have time first thing in the morning, after a  run, after work or maybe not until right before bed but all of these things have in common a nice warm shower to refresh from what came before)
     • Link: Write a couple steps(no more than 3 points)/plan of action pre-shower so I know exactly what is going to happen before I even get out.

 

Photo Credit: Jean Paul Goude, Fashion and sport, French Elle 1996