A year ago, I was asked what I wanted for Christmas. There was a book I had my eye on that talked about habits. You may have heard of it: Atomic Habits by James Clear. It was a much deeper dive into habits than I had been expecting. I learned a lot as I read through it. I've adopted some of his terms now as well, as I create and stack habits together.
All of us have habits. Habits are things we do without thinking. We each have habits. Our families have habits. Our cultures have habits. We don't even think about them or even realize them at times, because, by definition, we do them without thinking. Habits serve us in some way, by making it easier for us to do a task. Habits are formed on purpose, and habits are formed on accident. I noticed this the other day when we were getting ready to head to the store as a family. My son paused at the fridge, looking for a snack to eat in the van while we drove to the store. I wondered why he did that since we were also going to be going out to eat. I helped all the kids get outside to the van, and I had to run back in for something else. I found myself, also, then, pause at the fridge, looking for a snack to eat while we left. At some point I was the one who had created the habit of pausing to grab something to eat. It started a few times when we were going to head to the lake house, which meant we would be in the car for about 45 minutes. Long enough that I didn't want to get hangry on everyone because it was during the time I was still fasting breakfast. Because of our routines at the lake house, I didn't know what all food we had there, so I wanted to make sure I had something good in my stomach to give me energy. Yet here I was standing before the fridge, looking for a snack to eat before we went out to eat. That habit wasn't actually serving me, yet I was still on autopilot, wasn't i?
I try to be as intentional as possible with my habits, because I want them to serve me for the longterm. I have a habit of brushing my teeth before bed each night. I have a habit of making coffee each morning with butter and coconut oil. I have a habit of drinking a large glass of water in the morning to prime myself for the day. I once again have the habit of stretching each morning. I have a 15 minute routine that wakes me up, stretches me out, and gets my blood flowing each morning. And I now have a habit of jumping into the ice barrel for a few minutes each morning too. That didn't happen all at once, and it didn't happen by accident. It took time to build the habit. It took time to build the routine. But once the habit was established of showing up for myself each morning, then I stacked another new habit onto it. Now that I have this routine, I'm considering stacking a different type of exercise to it as well, to keep it interesting.
Your habits serve you in some way. At least they used to. Take a look at your habits. If you have a hard time seeing your habits, ask someone in your family to help you see your habits. Examine them with an open mind. Figure out how they serve you. Figure out how they can serve you better. Make a plan, and then execute. But don't do it all at once. Start small. Show up consistently. Then stack on top of it. Build the habits you want to have that will serve you for the longterm.
‘HABIT’ ON PURPOSE, FRIEND.
Chris
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