Category: Writing

How Habits Are Formed

“You can be overwhelmed by every small setback in life, or you can be energized by the possibilities they bring.” Caroline Leaf

 

This month has been a month of looking at our habits to see the impact that they are having on our lives and where we are heading. We’ve looked at why habits are important and how to change our habits Can Habits Change?, both are important to changing the course of our lives. Now let’s look at how we can form new habits.

I’m not a trained physiologist, and if you want a more scientific take on habits, then the only place I can point you to is Google. I can tell you what I’ve done to help me develop habits and what hasn’t worked.
Let me start with my morning this morning as an example of what hasn’t worked. I have a morning routine that I try to keep every day. It helps me accomplish some of the more important things that I want to do.

This morning, however, what ended up happening was I sat down at my computer and just stared at the screen. I didn’t meditate or read my daily Bible reading plan. What did I do? I watched a couple of superhero shows, ate some cereal and then decided I would try to start my morning routine about an hour or so later than I wanted to. It really just made me feel bad because I didn’t have a good reason for slacking and it just pushed me further back than I wanted to.

So what has worked for me? Let me give you what I have learned and what has helped me to form new habits.


1. Establish the goal


A new habit won’t last if you don’t know what the end goal is. For me, a part of my morning routine is reading my daily Bible plan and also writing 500 words. My end goal for both of these are things that I want to accomplish this year. With my daily Bible reading, the goal I have is to read through the Bible in a year. Writing 500 words every day will help me reach my goal of publishing two books this year and reaching more people with my blog.


2. Don’t dwell on the mistakes

I’ve probably had more days than I would like to admit about messing up my morning routine or missing it all together. However, I don’t beat myself up over it. I try to tackle some of the things throughout the day, but I make sure not to beat myself up over it. If anything I push it aside and try again the next day.


3. Reward Yourself

Too many times in developing a new habit we want to wait until we’ve reach the goal or the end until we reward ourselves. For me, I like to set rewards along the way. Rewards along the way reinforce the habit I’m trying to develop. That’s what it is all about. Solidifying the habit is the goal.

Hopefully these things help you and you don’t beat yourself up if you have a misstep. Tomorrow is another day and another opportunity.



Discussion Question:
What habit are you trying to develop?

 

The Importance of Habits

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude. – Colin Powell

Have you ever thought about the habits that you have? Most people don’t and I can say for a long time that I didn’t. How important are habits, they are the key to changing your life. They can help you become a better person, a better spouse, father, employee or boss. The opposite is also true. Your habits could be keeping you in the same place. The habits that you have now may have gotten you a comfortable life, but they also may be keeping you in that comfort. Habits are very important.

Life Assessment
Morning Routine

My Writing Habit

There have been a couple of times where I have tried to form a new habit with my writing. It’s on my heart to write two books this year. I know that to get those accomplished I need to actually sit down and write. One thing that I’ve learned is that I need a daily writing habit. My goal is writing  500 words a day. That is why most of my articles are right around that length.

The reason that my books aren’t completed is because I haven’t been consistent in my writing. I have a morning routine and have written about the importance of a writing routine, but I still haven’t stuck to it lately. These ups and downs with my writing habit do show me the importance of habits.

Want to know how important habits are? Here are some stats

The Importance of Habits

  • Almost half of the actions you perform each day are habits.
  • Habits are powerful because of neurological cravings.
  • When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making
  • The automatization of your actions free up energy that can be used focus to other tasks.
  • Take control over your habits: Your brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits.

 

The general rule is that it takes 21 Days to start a new habit. The struggle for most of us , myself included, is that we can do good for a couple of days and then it just takes one day to mess up everything and we feel like we have to start all over again.

21 Days to a new Habit...what's holding you back Click To Tweet

Habits are vitally important to us. From the above list, we can see how much of what we do is based on habits.

How often do you think about the route that you take to work? Do you think about the route when you take the kids to school? What about the start of your work day?

The good news is that we can change our habits. We can improve and go from where we are to where we want to be. It’s not about changing the big things in our lives but about changing the things we do on a daily basis.

 

The Morning Routine You Need

Time w/ God

I like to get the most out of my day. I feel like it is a good day when at night I can look back and feel like I accomplished something. It’s a good feeling to have days where you feel productive. Productivity has a way of making you feel better in every area of your life.

Netflix & What Would’ve Been

I despise the feeling of having a day off of work or being on vacation and wanting to get so many things done, and yet somehow nothing gets done. If you’re like me, you have this day marked on your calendar and you expect having a “free day” to do whatever you need or want. However,  the great plans that you had disappeared when you sat down to catch up on your Netflix queue. Before you know it, you’ve watched an entire season of House of Cards, it’s 6 o’ clock and you still haven’t showered!

Start the Right Way

One of the most important things that I’ve learned over the last couple of years is how important your morning routine is to the start of a great day. You can pretty much Google “How to have a great morning,” and get plenty of advice on how to get the most out of your day. What I see from these tips and morning routines are the biblical principles that God has laid out for us. So what does God say about how we are to start our day.

1. Plan the night before

The start to a great day actually begins the night before. Proverbs 21:5 Says that “the plans of the diligent leads to abundance”. A successful day actually begins the day before. Too many times we just let the day happen to us. We need to plan how we want our days to look in advance.

2. Praise & Worship

I like to start my day with some Praise & Worship. This helps me so that I’m not tempted to go back to sleep. Offering up praise and worship to God is a way get our blood pumping and our bodies moving. Having this time of praise and worship has a way of opening our hearts and helps us focus on God’s goodness at the start of the day.

3. Devotional

Having a good devotional is a  benefit. Most devotionals give a daily scripture, some reflection and a prayer at the end. I really like devotionals because they offer a focus for the day. It provides context and gives me a reference for what I can refer to throughout the day. Joshua 1:8 says it best. We are to “meditate on God’s word day and night.” Devotionals are great for this.

4. Pray

By this point in the morning routine, there you should flow from one thing to the next. It can be easy to flow from the devotional  prayer to a time of personal prayer. For me, I like to begin my personal time with expressing to God how thankful I am. Our prayer time should focus on God rather  than ourselves. While there are times we do need to express issues of our lives to God, there should also be times where we are praying for our families, friends and communities.

 

5. Journal

I am a big fan of writing in a journal. For me, it’s a great way to reflect on the previous day, and a way to transfer the thoughts in my head out on paper. Sitting down to journal after a time of prayer is a great way of getting in the habit of writing the things down that God tells us. Making using a journal a part of your morning routine helps to value God’s voice and His word.

6. Confessions/Affirmations

Ending the morning routine with confessions or affirmations is an awesome way to build up our confidence and self-esteem before  we step into the world. God’s word is most powerful when we speak it out of our mouths. We don’t just become the things we see and hear, we become what we say. Confessing God’s word over lives builds us up for so many things that we attack during the day.

 

Have you developed a morning routine? If not, what is holding you back? Let’s start today with getting the most out of our days.