“A goal is a dream with a deadline”.
-Keith Ferrazzi, "Never Eat Alone" (A surprisingly motivating book...)
Today is my first check in for the habit project; the habit I am developing is writing a rough draft every morning. Though I officially started Monday and have only been tracking myself for a few days, I’ve learned three lessons when it comes to developing good habits.
1. Clearly define your goals. Good habits take us closer to our larger goals. In a sense they ground our dreams, forcing us to practice, honor and shape them into ourselves every single day. Identify your goal, write it down, put it in a place you can see it everyday.
2. Boundaries are tremendously important. Think of your habit as your job, you will be fired if you don’t show up and/or don’t do it.
This means you will probably disappoint people because you will have to say no, a lot. That’s ok. You need to show up to do whatever your task may be; it’s a way of honoring yourself.
3. Practice. Habits are something we do every single day. This is why it’s called a habit. There are not exceptions to this and you can’t make any, especially in the beginning, because you are still developing them.
I’ve struggled with each of these topics thus far. It’s hard to set boundaries, especially if you’re like me and have a very irritating but genuine desire to please other people.. Practice is also hard. Because I am holding myself accountable to myself, it’s very easy to say, "I'll do it later". I'm working on calling myself on these actions. Additionally, as I have clarified and written down my goals, following through with the daily actions has gotten much easier.
One thing I did do was google my specific habit to see if there was any pointers on writing in the morning. For all those interested in writing, I found this great article on writing in the morning: "How To Write First Thing In The Morning"
How's it going for everyone else? What do you think about these 3 pointers? Are they on, off? Working, not working for you?
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