This November I Will....
themedalist
Posts: 3,218 Member
Happy November! And welcome to the homestretch of 2021!
With the holidays on the horizon, now is the time to double down on the healthy habits that will help us through this hectic time of year. What’s one small habit you could create this month or pick up again that would help you? Please don’t overlook small self-care, stress reducing ideas, such as deep breathing, micro workouts, and meditation. If you know that the increased darkness negatively impacts you, maybe purchase a light therapy lamp and see if using it over the next few weeks makes a difference to you?
There are more than 60 days left in 2021. That’s plenty of time to create a couple new small habits. What do you want to accomplish? How do you want things to be better for you on January first? What can you do now? What WILL you do now?
🌷Denise & 🌸Maddie
@themedalist & @MadisonMolly2017
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NEWCOMERS:
If you are new to our group, welcome! Please let us know what you will be working on this month and how we can help! A suggestion: set a reminder to check-in periodically with us. Check-in daily, weekly, or as often as works for you, but let us know how you are progressing! We're here to support and encourage you, but if you don't post, we can't cheer you on!
IF YOU ARE NEW TO BUILDING HABITS:
Building new habits is a structured, time-consuming, and repetitive process. It doesn’t just happen overnight. But it’s well worth the effort! Having good eating, exercise, and sleeping habits makes it much easier to lose weight and achieve your other health goals. You won’t have to rely on feeling motivated. You’ll act on your new habits because it’s just what you do. We use the recommended approaches of noted habits experts BJ Fogg, James Clear, Wendy Wood, and Charles Duhigg to guide us through this process.
We have 2 different strategies we recommend. Both are good tools for habit formation, they are just different methods and one might be better suited to you than the other.
METHOD 1: HABIT STACKING
We highly recommend habit stacking as a great way to build a new healthy habit. Simply attach the habit you want to create to a habit you already have using this structure:
AFTER I ________________________
I WILL __________________________
EXAMPLES:
- After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.
- After I drink my afternoon coffee, I will put on my walking shoes.
- After I put away my breakfast dishes, I will prep 3 servings of vegetables for the day.
- After I clean up after dinner, I will plan tomorrow’s dinner & move necessary items from freezer to refrigerator.
- After I weigh myself in the morning, I will drink 2 cups of refreshing, cool water.
- After I start my coffee brewing, I will stand on each leg for 30 seconds.
METHOD 2: HABIT LOOP
Frame your goal along these lines:
1. My goal for this month (This November I will...")
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible)
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? (Small positive feedbacks reinforce the habit you are trying to build.)
6. What help do you need from us?
7. What does success look like to you at the end of November?
TRACKERS
Since all new habits require lots of repetition to make them stick, we highly recommend you use a habit tracker to log your daily progress.
Tracker Types:
- Paper - plenty of free ones or create your own. A simple sheet of paper works! Check out the trackers of @77tes in past months!
- Calendar: Denise (@themedalist) uses these. Daily check marks work just fine!
- Tracking apps - some are free
- Physical - move a marble, paper clip, etc into a jar each day or color code them
- Emoji - @TexasGardnr @nebslp & @MadisonMolly2017 are fond of these! Look in prior month’s to see how effective they are!
Whatever helps you celebrate your baby steps and successes will work. But please use a tracker. It makes it more likely you’ll change your behavior and it’s fun to see your progress!
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I'm still thinking about my November goal!4
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1. This November I will tidy up the house every evening.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal: I will check kitchen table and counters and put away things, also pantry counter, living room and bedroom spaces, and back entry for stray items that need to be put in their proper place.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Finishing dinner, before getting involved in projects or TV watching.
4. How often will you do your new habit? daily
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? My best rewards are intrinsic. I will do a walkthrough after clearing things up and feel good about the way the house looks.
6. What help do you need from us? Cheers!
7. What does success look like to you at the end of November? I will get up in the morning to a clean house, and I'll feel freer to pursue fun projects without looking at yesterday's clutter.
Happy November
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1. This November I will tidy up the house every evening.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal: I will check kitchen table and counters and put away things, also pantry counter, living room and bedroom spaces, and back entry for stray items that need to be put in their proper place.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Finishing dinner, before getting involved in projects or TV watching.
4. How often will you do your new habit? daily
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? My best rewards are intrinsic. I will do a walkthrough after clearing things up and feel good about the way the house looks.
6. What help do you need from us? Cheers!
7. What does success look like to you at the end of November? I will get up in the morning to a clean house, and I'll feel freer to pursue fun projects without looking at yesterday's clutter.
Happy November
I love this!! I've been doing my kitchen this way and am going to expand on it. I always finish dinner before hubby (he's a VERY slow eater and I'm super fast!!) I can clean up the pots/pans from his making dinner, load the dishwasher, and clean up the kitchen... and he's STILL eating dinner! Lol. I've been making more of an effort to clear my counters off and make sure that everything is put away!!4 -
I'm not going to incorporate any new goals in Nov. I just need to continue to solidify my existing habits, as I've gotten kinda lax.
Yoga everyday (trigger: after morning coffee)
10k steps/day (trigger: 3k by 10am / 6k by 2pm / 9k by 6pm daily)
Clear off all the counters in the kitchen every evening (trigger: after dinner)
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This November I will …
Sing one song every day! I love to sing and I was so happy when our Philharmonic Chorus returned to rehearsals (with strict rules for health and safety). We’ve now had more cancelled rehearsals than actual, and my motivation to just keep singing that repertoire anyway has waned.
I feel happy and energized when I sing, and a girlfriend shared this great visual. I am going to follow along during November using the prompts.
I have printed it out and will mark a check, my song choice each day, and save my selections to Apple Music.
Off to choose and sing my selection for day one. 🎼🎵🎶🎵
Today’s choice is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (cover by Sara Bareilles).
https://youtu.be/Ozd2ja7mAgM
Be well everyone,
Julie
🥰5 -
jamcnewman wrote: »This November I will …
Sing one song every day! I love to sing and I was so happy when our Philharmonic Chorus returned to rehearsals (with strict rules for health and safety). We’ve now had more cancelled rehearsals than actual, and my motivation to just keep singing that repertoire anyway has waned.
I feel happy and energized when I sing, and a girlfriend shared this great visual. I am going to follow along during November using the prompts.
I have printed it out and will mark a check, my song choice each day, and save my selections to Apple Music.
Off to choose and sing my selection for day one. 🎼🎵🎶🎵
Today’s choice is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (cover by Sara Bareilles).https://youtu.be/Ozd2ja7mAgM
Be well everyone,
Julie
🥰
Julie, I just love your November challenge!
I can’t wait to hear your daily selections. Great choice for Nov 1st!4 -
@nebslp, as I read your November “I will” I realized I would benefit from the same focus this month. It discourages me how cluttered my house gets. It feels overwhelming, but I know with a little bit of time every day I can make real progress this month. So:
1. This November I will declutter rooms or storage areas in my house
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal: It depends on the area I’m focused on.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: right after I play the guitar
4. How often will you do your new habit? Daily. For at least 5 minutes, but not more than 20 minutes.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit. Seeing it picked up is it’s own reward!
6. What help do you need from us? Encouragement
7. What does success look like to you at the end of November? I know I can make real progress this month and I feel better when I’m surrounded by less clutter.
Thank you for the great suggestion, @nebslp! I picked up the kitchen this evening and it felt great!6 -
Great “I Will’s” everyone!! I can tell it’s gonna be a great month!
I don’t have any new habits (or let’s say, I could, but I feel I have enough at the moment!”)
Here are my 3:
1. Today is Day 112 of my “Final Sentimental Decluttering.” I do a minimum of 10 mins a day, but usually much more. In fact, the only day I did just 14 minutes was when our power was out & it was getting dark! I tend to get “hooked” by what I’m finding or the “high” of making progress on this final area of Decluttering!
My emoji for this will be: 📸
2. Today is Day 11 of my “I Choose to reduce Total Cholesterol & LDL” Challenge. Both are okay, but I know I can improve them.
My emoji for this will be: ⛑
3. Today is Day 5 of my restart of “Make Art Daily” Challenge 🎨
4. I also have walking, calorie, sleep habits, food tracking, macro/micro targets, weigh daily, etc. that I’m keeping tabs on, but post in another group. I’m flossing more often, but will save that for a future month!
🌸Maddie5 -
Oh wowzers, so many great goals! @nebslp I’m doing a 5 minute pickup every night too, and @jamcnewman I really like the song challenge, I think I’ll try that one too! I need to work on tightening up my food choices because I’ve been backsliding! I’ll try to formulate a good I will (or maybe a couple I Won’ts). 😅
Okay, what colorful song should I sing?4 -
During September I focused on what turned out to be whole anti-procrastination MONTH.
With special thanks to @77tes for pointing it out to me that is what I was actually doing. And it was true!
So for November I want to go a bit further with a nod to what I learned back in the day from FlyLady. So this month I will pay a little extra attention to those areas indoors that would benefit from some extra attention, such as a little extra deeper cleaning, or possibly a little decluttering and/or reorganizing as needed. Like micro-mini room rescue missions.
1. During November I will attend to what is most needed in small areas of a room.
2. The small action I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal: I will decide the night before what room and what area I will focus on the next day.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: After lunch I will start.
4. How often will you do your new habit? daily.
5. What will be my reward: I will cross it off my list and then look around and smile
6. What help do you need from us? Encouraging words.
7. What does success look like to you at the end of November? The house will feel and look more tidy and organized again.
Thank you 🤠🌺7 -
@77tes, I am so excited you’re picking up @jamcnewman song challenge. I’m sure some of the songs you both will be singing are pieces I could play on my guitar and add to my song database.
I scanned my song database (about 200 songs) for colors and here’s what I came up with:
Blue suede shoes
Yellow submarine
Brown eyed girl
Fields of gold
Rainbow connection (OK, a bit of a stretch!)5 -
@jamcnewman
I love the idea of the song challenge. I would love to join you. 🎵🎶🎵
November Song Challenge
1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
3.4 -
Yoga:
😳 (that's a NO!)
(If I don't do my yoga RIGHT after breakfast, then I have a procrastination issue).
10k steps:
👟 (that's a YES!)
Clean the kitchen:
👏🏻 (that looks like a "cleaning hand" to me, so that's a YES!)
😳 ❣️ 🤸♀️
@77tes and @jamcnewman I'm looking forward to your singing challenge! What a cute idea! ❣️4 -
Day 1 color song Blue Skies, but my husband suggested Red River Valley. @themedalist I was also thinking of Rainbow songs, and that’s a favorite.
Day 2 - When I’m 64. Fun fact, my husband is the same age as Paul McCartney, so both were 64 at the same time.
@Mrs_Hoffer I’ve also been struggling with my Yoga. I do it at night and if I procrastinate, it gets too late….5 -
I will continue with consolidating my established daily habits, plus the following new habit, and challenge.
For my November I will …
After I switch off my devices at 11 pm…..
….. I will do a quick pick up sweep of the downstairs before I go upstairs.
🧹🧹
🎼🎹November Song Challenge🎹🎼 I will use YouTube videos for the lyrics of songs I don’t know. I might even have a go at some of the songs others post. I love to sing.
🎤1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
🎤2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
3.
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I'm enjoying the variety of ways you all are choosing your songs for your November Song Challenges 🎵 😄. Very clever...
@Mrs_Hoffer I agree with you that certainly looks like a "cleaning hand" 👍. Well done!
Besides my November's daily focus on an area of a room to tidy or clean and/or declutter.
I'm also continuing for another month my 10 minute do something I've left for "later" or any random to do that I can finish quickly and easily instead of adding something additional to my "later list"
November 1: Small daily focus: After wiping down the kitchen counters I wiped down the cabinet doors below/ above the counters ✅.
Anti-procrastination mission: put away my folded laundry that I left in the basket ⭐.
November 2: Small daily focus: right side of the Living Room ✅.
Anti-procrastination mission: Sort and put away DH's laundry (sock 🧦 load) ⭐.
🤠🌺6 -
Hmm, @texasgardnr my 5 minute pickup felt like I was creating procrasti-clutter like Dana White calls it. But today was wild, starting with a dead car battery.
@TerriRichardson112 I had to use YouTube for the words to Red River Valley and When I’m 64 because, I could hardly remember the first song at all and could only remember the refrain for When I’m 64. Now to go find the lyrics to my summertime song although I’m pretty sure I know it all.😉4 -
Nov KEY: 📸declutter ⛑LDL⬇️ 🎨create!
1 📸❌🎨 made photo transfers with clear contact paper
2 📸⛑🎨 carved my first rubber stamp!
I’m joining the singing, too!!
Nov 1 “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!”🎶
Nov 2 “Chim Chim Cher-ee” Mary Poppins 🎶
Nov 3 “Orinoco Flow” Celtic Woman
Nov 4 “I’m Tired” Madeline Kahn
Oh my gosh..this was SO FUN! Thank you Ladies!!!5 -
I will continue with consolidating my established daily habits, plus the following new habit, and challenge.
For my November I will …
After I switch off my devices at 11 pm…..
….. I will do a quick pick up sweep of the downstairs before I go upstairs.
🧹🧹
🎼🎹November Song Challenge🎹🎼 I will use YouTube videos for the lyrics of songs I don’t know. I might even have a go at some of the songs others post. I love to sing.
🎤1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
🎤2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
🎤3. Summertime- Billie Holliday. This was one of my mother’s favourite songs so I know the words. 😂
2 -
Love love love the song theme that is spreading within this group. You are all very inspiring.
@Mrs_Hoffer I had a huge smile reading about you and your hubby's eating speed. It's the same in our household.
I am on day 16 of a 21 day personal challenge. I have been exercising and eating non-processed......make my own kombucha, sourkraut, pickles..you get the idea...but weight was not budging. So, with the challenge I cut the alcohol(only temporarily of course..love my wine) so that was an easy 600+calories per day. I'm also 'temporarily' counting my 'macros' and for me, it seems I function best, and lose weight when I keep my carbs between 50-70gper day.
Anyways, these tiny habbits challenges is what motivated me to do this personal challenge.
After 16 days I'm doing great. Calm mind, peaceful inside. I guess it's part of the whole thing, doing meditation and yoga before bed for an hour instead of having another glass of wine. As far as the weight thing goes I've shed about 6 or 7 lbs so far.
My ultimate goal is to avoid spinal surgery...so get the excess weight off, get more mobility, and maintain and regain my quality of life...So that is exactly what I am doing!
So after the long tale, my tiny challenge is to continue my 21 day challenge for another round.4 -
@everydaywechoose it sounds like you are doing great! My carb goal is 100, and I find that plenty challenging depending on what my dinner entree is. Your success is inspiring!
@TerriRichardson112 I love Summertime! My mom used to sing it as a lullaby Now it’s playing in my head 🙂
My summertime song choice is Surfin USA by The Beach Boys. It’s kind of hard to sing because of the list of surfing spots in the lyrics However, most of them are local, so familiar. I finished a set of essays yesterday, but of course there’s another set coming in next week.
@MadisonMolly2017 you are amazing with your sentimental decluttering - that’s the truly hard stuff. I’m glad to hear that the daily art goal is happening!
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Nov 1: Small daily focus: kitchen counters & cabinet doors ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: put away my folded laundry ⭐
Nov 2: Small daily focus: right side of the Living Room ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: sort and put away DH's laundry (sock 🧦 load) ⭐
Nov 3: Small daily focus: cleaned & decluttered area off the kitchen by back door ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: potted up the rooted cuttings ⭐
🤠🌺3 -
@77tes Oh, no! I wonder why car batteries never die on days we aren't going somewhere important 😖.
@MadisonMolly2017 that is so cool that you carved your own rubber stamp 😁!!!
@TerriRichardson112 your quick pick up sweep of the downstairs is a great habit!! Nice song choices also 👍.
@everydaywechoose eating non-processed foods and making your own foods is an amazing challenge, and you truly have a very compelling reason to go for another 21 day personal challenge again!
🤠🌺5 -
Nov KEY: 📸declutter ⛑LDL⬇️ 🎨create!
1 📸❌🎨 made photo transfers with clear contact paper
2 📸⛑🎨 carved my first rubber stamp!
3 📸⛑🎨 “fussy” cut out old bits of watercolor botanicals & Chinese brush painting to use in future collages!
I’m joining the singing, too!!
🎶Nov 1 “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!”☀️
🎶Nov 2 “Chim Chim Cher-ee” 🌂Poppins
🎶Nov 3 “Orinoco Flow” Celtic Woman 🗺
Nov 4 “I’m Tired” Madeline Kahn
Nov 5 “Stayin’ Alive Bee Gees
Thank you @77tes! Big job, but averaging about an hour+ a day, so I’m definitely seeing progress. Sorted sweet letters from my grandparents & great aunts today!! ❤️❤️6 -
Continuing to consolidate my established daily habits, plus the following new habit, and challenge.
In November
…. After I switch off my devices at 11 pm….
…. I will do a quick pick up sweep of the downstairs before I go upstairs.
🧹🧹🧹🧹
🎼🎹November Song Challenge🎹🎼 I will use YouTube videos for the lyrics of songs I don’t know. I might even have a go at some of the songs others post. I love to sing.
🎤1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
🎤2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
🎤3. Summertime- Billie Holliday. This was one of my mother’s favourite songs so I know the words. 😂
🎤4: I get knocked down - Chumba Whumba. I had to think long and hard about this. There was a teacher once who told me I would never amount to anything. Can’t remember his name.
5: Girls just wanna have fun - Cyndi Lauper5 -
November 4 - You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch. My daughters and I had our salaries cut the last day before before Christmas break, and the man who sent the email had set up his out of office email reply. We went and bought our Christmas tree. 🌲🙂 “He didn’t stop Christmas from coming. It came…”5
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@77tes The grinch song...perfect..I hope you raise the rafters! For the carbs, it's early on in this effort, I think i'm in the 'honeymoon' phase of my little challenge.
@TerriRichardson112 Love how you displayed your song choices.
@texasgardnr Thank you for your encouragement. It really helps:) a lot!
@MadisonMolly2017 I love your creativity. Great inspiration for future projects. Also, I've seen your name around different groups for a few years now. You have always been a positive influence. Cheers to positive energy.
Hey all this is motivating. I cant possibly stand to not participate in the music thing....gees now I gotta come up with some songs that will sing to my soul...so might be a few days while i ponder this. I love love music.
4 -
Nov 1: Small daily focus: kitchen counters & cabinet doors ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: put away my folded laundry ⭐
Nov 2: Small daily focus: right side of the Living Room ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: sort and put away DH's laundry (sock 🧦 load) ⭐
Nov 3: Small daily focus: cleaned & decluttered area off the kitchen by back door ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: potted up the rooted cuttings ⭐
Nov 4: Small daily focus: cleaned/ polished the Living Room furniture ✅
Anti-procrastination mission: cleaned the back sliding glass door ⭐
🤠🌺3 -
Nov KEY: 📸declutter ⛑LDL⬇️ 🎨create!
1 📸⬆️🎨 made photo transfers with clear contact paper
2 📸⛑🎨 carved my first rubber stamp!
3 📸⛑🎨 “fussy” cut out old bits of watercolor botanicals & Chinese brush painting to use in future collages!
4 📸⬆️🎨 created large monograms & words in ink & pen! Decluttering is going great. Small laptop neatly completely done!!
I’m joining the singing, too!!
🎶Nov 1 “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!”☀️
🎶Nov 2 “Chim Chim Cher-ee” 🌂Poppins
🎶Nov 3 “Orinoco Flow” Celtic Woman 🗺
🎶Nov 4 “Bohemian Rhapsody” Queen 👑
(Did a ton of research on the lyrics!) WOW!
“I’m Tired” Madeline Kahn
“Stayin’ Alive Bee Gees
❤️4 -
@everydaywechoose
Wow! Thank you so much 🌸
Your message means SO MUCH to me!
Yes, I figure we beat the odds even being conceived, so let’s make the most of it!
THANK YOU❣️
Maddie
“@MadisonMolly2017 I love your creativity. Great inspiration for future projects. Also, I've seen your name around different groups for a few years now. You have always been a positive influence. Cheers to positive energy.”3
