I messed up. But here's how I'm fixing it.
/When you're trying to establish new, better habits, it's best not to do them all at once.
Actually it's best to do one at a time, especially if you resist that.
When you're establishing new habits, it’s most effective to make the habit very small and stupidly simple. So simple you can’t not do it.
For example, if you want to start get in the habit of doing yoga each morning, start with the habit of just rolling out your mat.
Of course, if you genuinely want to practice yoga every morning, your brain will fight you on the command to "just roll out your mat." You'll most likely get the Inner Critic telling you all kinds of things, like that "you're failing at your goal" or that "rolling out your mat without doing yoga won't make any difference." But the truth is, it will.
Once you start getting in the habit of rolling out your mat every day, to the point where it’s automatic, you can start adding onto that. You might then add onto your habit by rolling out the mat and sitting on it for 5 minutes ... or even better 1 minute.
Again, making the initial habit so simple that you can't talk yourself out of it will start to establish a pattern. Once that is automatic you can add on to that. Doing a simple 5 minute practice, which will eventually increase to 10. You even might find that you look forward to your 10 minutes on the mat in the morning.
Before you know it, you'll find yourself doing the thing you set out for: practicing yoga every morning. It will become an automatic activity.
I share all this to explain that though I have successfully established some great habits the past few weeks (publishing a blog everyday, getting myself to a yoga class every day), there is one that I'm falling short on.
I strive to send an email to my list each week to offer some tool for living life on the upward spiral to my subscribers. I also include a digest of my blogs from the past week. But last week, I ghosted them. The activities of the week got in my way and I let the whole week slip by without writing them at all.
In the world of email lists, it's not that big of a deal. I doubt anyone noticed. But I don't want to let it go too long. Staying in touch with my audience is important to me and it's not like I'm without anything to say (daily blogs being evidence of that!).
I can see that it's far easier to have a daily habit (like my now daily habit of writing on my blog) than it is to have a weekly habit. But, I know how to use an established habit to integrate a new habit.
So, moving forward I plan to use one of my blog writing time per week to write my actual email to my list (like I'm doing right now) AND I'm challenging myself to keep the email simple and to the point. As my teacher, Laura Belgray always says, no one complains that an email is too short.
If you want to check my progress (and get some inso on your upward spiral that you CAN'T find anywhere else), be sure to subscribe on the home page.
I'll report back on how it's going next week. We all know I love me some accountability.
So I want to know:
What is one habit you want to integrate into your days or weeks?
What is the first, stupidly simple, act you can start doing now to build on so you can make this habit happen?
