March 12 Weekly Challenge: Building Better Habits
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This morning I was surprised that as I walked in the kitchen to put on the coffee, I immediately thought about my vitamin and grabbed it on my way to the pot. So I might tweak that to reverse the process since it was so natural today. We’ll see. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to spend upstairs so i didn’t pour my coffee and take it up with me today. I did pour hot water in my cup to warm it up before going up and spent about 1 minute in my studio writing yesterday’s notes on my calendar so I think that counts as the same cue. My reward for that goal is just being in my special room because it makes me5
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I took my walk after lunch! It is really gross out. It just stopped raining so the ground is soupy(I live on a dirt road) and it was really cold/damp. But I got to play my game and got a few new things and as I was walking Mom texted me to tell me that my herb seeds came in the mail yesterday. I stopped by her house on the way back to mine(we live on the same property). It was a nice little surprise. I also saw that the garbage hasn't been picked up yet so I can take a bag to the can and the roads are clear after the rain/snow so I think I will go to the gym in a little while. I love how all these things came to mind while I was starting a new habit!5
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HGSmith0920 wrote: »@themedalist That video is what inspired me to make my bed every morning! I think my cue will be after doing the lunch dishes I will talk a walk to the end of the driveway. The reward will be that I can play Pokemon Go(yes I am one of those! Lol) while I do it! The reward for brushing my teeth is knowing that I won't eat anything until lunch. And the reward for doing the dishes as soon as they are used is that I won't have a pile of dishes hanging over my head all night or into the next morning. That will be a great relief to me.
@HGSmith0920, great cues, great routines, and great rewards. You are going to have some great new habits!
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OConnell5483 wrote: »Day 2 of Tiny Habits! I did find my email from Tiny Habits in my Spam folder, so that should be all taken care of now.
I did incorporate another one since it's something I have been trying to make into a habit but don't always take the time. I always have a more settled and serene day when I start my day sitting down and taking the time to say a prayer for the day. So...
• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will read one verse of scripture
• After I Finish dinner, I will pick out tomorrow’s outfit
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will wash my face
Adding: After I towel dry my hair, I will start my day with a prayer.
What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon! For example, after each cup of coffee I pour, I have been reading 5 verses of scripture. After dinner, I picked out my outfit which prompted me to pack my lunch also. and after I brushed my teeth at bedtime, I washed my face and went the extra step to moisturize it also. Only took extra minute but how cool if this continues!
This is a really awesome challenge this week. Loving it and it's only day two!
What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon!. Exactly!! At first glance, the examples that are given by the Tiny Habits program seem kind of silly. They actually suggest that one healthy habit to start with is flossing just one tooth. How can such a small habit amount to anything substantial?
Because you’re laying the foundation and mastering the small sequence of steps that are needed to make any habit stick. And because they’re so tiny, they don’t require motivation or willpower, nor send up “this is too hard” red flags to our naturally resistant to change brains.
We crawl before we run, we boil an egg before we attempt a soufflé. Build some small habits, learn the components and master the process and you will be UNSTOPPABLE.3 -
I’ve been thinking about my own habits this week and here’s what I’m working on.
1. After I get out of bed in the morning, I’m going to do 1 minute of yoga stretches. Reward? A personal shout out that this is a great way to start what will be an awesome day.
2. After I eat my meals, I will log it in MFP (I don’t always do this because I’m in maintenance) Reward? Reminding myself that I eat better when I log my foods.
3. Af night, after I set the alarm, I will do 5 minutes of meditation. Reward? It’s a wonderful primer for getting a great night’s sleep!
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So here are my habit rewards
1. After I wake up, I'll put on my sneakers.
Reward: This gets me started on an active day - shuffling around in slippers,
not so much
4. After I turn on the coffee, I'll drink a glass of water.
Reward: I'm usually thirsty in the morning and I have to wait for the coffee.
6. After I eat dinner, I'll prepare my lunch for the next day.
Reward: I won't have to run around throwing my lunch together in the morning.
8. After I take the dogs out at night, I'll read a short poem (or part of a long one).
Reward: Joy! I love reading poetry and don't get around to it.
10. After I take my clothes to the dirty clothes basket, I'll put my clean clothes away.
Reward: No piles of clean clothes in need of a place to stay.
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So here are my habit rewards
1. After I wake up, I'll put on my sneakers.
Reward: This gets me started on an active day - shuffling around in slippers,
not so much
4. After I turn on the coffee, I'll drink a glass of water.
Reward: I'm usually thirsty in the morning and I have to wait for the coffee.
6. After I eat dinner, I'll prepare my lunch for the next day.
Reward: I won't have to run around throwing my lunch together in the morning.
8. After I take the dogs out at night, I'll read a short poem (or part of a long one).
Reward: Joy! I love reading poetry and don't get around to it.
10. After I take my clothes to the dirty clothes basket, I'll put my clean clothes away.
Reward: No piles of clean clothes in need of a place to stay.
These are great @77tes ! I am in the habit of doing #4 as well. I’m sure after sleeping all night, I’m pretty dehydrated.
It’s wonderful that you’ve squeezed in something that you love to do, but can’t do a lot, reading poetry, and made it one of your rewards.
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Because you are clearly interested in habits, I thought I’d share some of the interesting things that I’ve learned about habits over the years. Here’s one.
Where did the “21 days to form a habit” come from?
The popular belief that it takes 21 days to form a new habit originated from Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s. He noted that after he operated on his patients, it took them about 21 days to adjust to the change in their bodies. In his best selling book, Psycho-Cybernetics, he wrote that:
“These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”
Keep in mind that these were just his observations. But because his book was a huge bestseller, the “21 days” got repeated over and over again and a key part of his quote, “requires a minimum of 21 days” got omitted altogether. As we see from social media today, the more things get repeated, the more people believe that they must be true.
How long a habit actually takes to form and become automatic varies widely. But it isn’t a cast-in-stone 21 days.
Now you know. If you are interested in learning more, see: https://jamesclear.com/new-habit
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It has only been 3 days but there has already been a shift in my behavior. My first tiny habit is to meditate for 30 seconds after I pee. It turns out after each use of the bathroom I am meditating. I actually enjoy it. My goal for 2018 is to slow down and this is really going to help me.5
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If 21 days were a magic number, most New Years Resolutions wouldn't be toast by February. Sticking with a habit is what cements it. For instance, my putting on sneakers and drinking water first thing habits got derailed by a family medical crisis, Christmas, and 2 bouts of the flu. Having to forego those habits for a while means they are no longer automatic. On the other hand, because they were automatic before the interruption, I miss them and want to get back to them. This week, they are easier than the new habits.4
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When I quit smoking 2 years ago I remember my mom telling me that it only takes 21 days to form the habit of not smoking. It took waay longer than that. I took 3 months before it to become more of a natural thing. Now it's been two years and I barely even think about it anymore. In fact, anytime I walk by someone who is smoking I get pretty disgusted. Lol.
My teeth have been brushed and there are no dirty dishes in the sink. I think I am going to like doing these new habits!5 -
If 21 days were a magic number, most New Years Resolutions wouldn't be toast by February. Sticking with a habit is what cements it. For instance, my putting on sneakers and drinking water first thing habits got derailed by a family medical crisis, Christmas, and 2 bouts of the flu. Having to forego those habits for a while means they are no longer automatic. On the other hand, because they were automatic before the interruption, I miss them and want to get back to them. This week, they are easier than the new habits.
So true! Habits we had in the past are much easier to resurrect and move to the forefront again than brand new habits. And as @PinkyPan1 observed, really tiny habits often take root pretty quickly.
Keep in mind that building habits isn’t an all or nothing thing. Even though repetition is a key component of building a habit, researchers have found that skipping one day doesn’t derail your habit...even a new habit. But skipping two days in a row is problematic and missing three days in a row pretty much puts you back at square one. Unless as you noted @77tes, that this was something you did before.
The longer you’ve done the habit the more ingrained that behavior is in your life and in your daily routine and the easier it is to resume doing it after a break. That said, long streaks of practice are the key to making habits automatic, which is great because we don’t have to think about doing them anymore.
After 2.5 years of regularly playing the guitar it’s now a daily habit for me. I can miss a day or two here and there and it’s no big deal. I will keep going back to playing because I really enjoy it. However, missing a lot of days could theoretically delay my Grammy award, so there’s that to consider. :-)
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I guess I didn't really address or even think about the rewards for my tiny habits. Reading others' rewards on here made me think about why I picked the habits I did.
• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will read one verse of scripture Every year I tell myself I'm going to read the entire Bible that year. I never do. I never take the time and it seems so overwhelming to even start. But I can certainly read a verse every time I pour a cup of coffee and eventually (if I don't stop drinking coffee, LOL) I will have read the entire Bible. I want to learn more about the scriptures.
• After I Finish dinner, I will pick out tomorrow’s outfit I am always running around in the morning like a chicken with it's head cut off. This really helps my mornings go smoother. I want to add fixing my lunch to this routine but right now it's a TINY habit.
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will wash my face I don't know why I struggle with this. I dislike the set-up in our bathroom and when I wash my face in the sink it makes a huge mess in there. But I really want to take better care of my skin. So my reward is that my face feels cleaner and fresher when I go to bed.
Adding: After I towel dry my hair, I will start my day with a prayer. My days seem to always go better when I start out with a little chat with my higher power. Sometimes I chat with God in my car. Sometimes I chat while I'm getting ready but get distracted because I'm double tasking. This habit forces me to stop, sit in my rocker, close my eyes and just talk from the heart. It really gives me a wonderfully calm feeling as I start my day.
So far so good...Day 3!5 -
@OConnell5483 I have turned chatting with God into part of my morning routine(or I should say, am trying to). When I say morning routine on JFT, I generally mean read a chapter in my Bible, meditate, and talk to God. Lol. Sometimes I'll just randomly start talking to myself in the car. Like, have a running monologue while I'm sitting in traffic or even when I'm on the highway. People must think that I'm talking on the phone or something. Lol3
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Day 3 and I’m still not “perfect”. LOL! I grabbed my vitamin on the way to the coffee pot so that was good. I told myself I didn’t have 30 seconds to run upstairs because my husband was waiting for me...very patiently...and I had slept later than planned because I was still awake at 3:30 AM and was tired. So the truth of the matter is I could have done gone up, but I rationalized my way out of it. I regret not having that happy feeling that comes when I do my calendar review in the mornings so I will try to remember that next time I am too ????lazy??? Or is it resistance to change, something I struggle with?4
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Day 3 and I’m still not “perfect”. LOL! I grabbed my vitamin on the way to the coffee pot so that was good. I told myself I didn’t have 30 seconds to run upstairs because my husband was waiting for me...very patiently...and I had slept later than planned because I was still awake at 3:30 AM and was tired. So the truth of the matter is I could have done gone up, but I rationalized my way out of it. I regret not having that happy feeling that comes when I do my calendar review in the mornings so I will try to remember that next time I am too ????lazy??? Or is it resistance to change, something I struggle with?
@nebslp, Habits, even tiny habits, don't have a perfectly smooth glide path to success. They still have to live in our real world where there are breaks in our normal routine. I think that the pull of your upstairs room is strong enough that you will make this routine into a habit. Rewards are powerful incentives. It's the habits we try to push our way through when we're not sold on the rewards/benefits that are the hardest to make stick.
I think we all struggle with resistance to change, just to varying degrees. I think we can become more comfortable with change over time when change events make our lives better and happier. 15 years ago I was much more change adverse, but the changes that I've made since then were so positive that now my attitude towards change is: "Bring it on!"3 -
This thread is fantastic4
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airborneclarkey wrote: »This thread is fantastic
Welcome to our group, @airborneclarkey! We are glad you have joined us!
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Had a bad few hours in the evening but I seem to be feeling better. The dessert dishes(the reason for my bad mood I think) sat in the sink for a few hours but I did them! I really didn't want to but I bit the bullet and did them anyway. So my evening is over. Thank goodness! Lol7
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I am trying to retweak my eating habits at night I tend to over eat when the boyfriend goes to work, he works night shifts 4 on 4 off. Tonight I went to Zumba right after work didn't even give myself time to fall into the couch right after work.!!! You all are doing wonderful!!!!5