mastering habits in everyday lives

 

Monday seems like a good day as any to start a new habit!  How about September?  January?    Do you have habits that you wished that you could change, or implement, or squash completely?  When is the best time to start?  How long does it take for a new habit to stick?  Why do I fail when I create a new habit?  These are just some of the questions I always have when it comes to habits so I was ecstatic to here about the new book by Gretchen Rubin, titled Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives.  One thing you have to know about me is that I love books that claim to help me understand myself better.  I’m up for diving in and giving it my best as what do I have to lose?  Bad habits, oh wait, that is a good thing.  What do I have to gain?   Valuable insight into my personality that will help me discover how to create and stick to the habits I do want in my everyday life.  Sounds win win to me!

Next Monday, I will begin with a brief overview of the introduction and her Four Tendencies(categories we all fit into somewhere) and share which tendency I have discovered I am and why I was shocked by it.  This week I would like to ask for fellow travellers on the journey with me.  Maybe you are in the process of reading her book as well and working on your own habits.    Isn’t something like this better with company?  I assure you I am a very positive person and I will be blogging about the habits I’m trying to change or make stick.  I struggle with a lot of habits and yet not with others.  Rubin’s book sounds like it will give insight into why some works and why I’m frustrated or I end up feeling like a complete failure when a habit doesn’t stick.

Here is my list of habits that I currently want to understand and implement and/or change. In no particular order.

  1. Creating more opportunities for activity/exercise in my daily life.
  2. Drinking more water
  3. Incorporating Meditation into my daily life.
  4. Time for Creative Endeavours.
  5. Maintaining a House Cleaning Schedule

These I think are my top 5 right now.  I do have other habits some daily, some weekly that I try to include but don’t always succeed but are there anyways.  They are writing in my gratitude journal, weekly meal planning, reading a book every night to my kids and my daily reading before bed just for some examples.  The hardest part of all this will probably be getting real with myself about all the excuses I use or have used to not fully implement a habit that I know will benefit me.  But what I’m hoping is that once I understand which tendency I fall into as she outlines them then I can more effectively tackle those excuses and create a more strategic plan for success for any new habits.  And because I have kids and I am an educator I am very interested in how we can then take this knowledge about our adult selves and help our kids out with their habits.

I have highlighted this quote from her book as a starting point for discussion as it is in the decision making where I stumble and if I could just take the decision making out of the equation then perhaps more of my habits would be more success?   I don’t think about it and just do it automatically.  What do you think?  I would love to hear about your journey with your habits.  What works, what doesn’t.

 

real key to mastering habits

 

 

 

Cheers,

Bonnie Signature

 

 

 

Educator, Writer, Blogger

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Twitter: @adalinc3