Habits, Habits, Habits

At long last I sit down to write my first blog post in a long time. This is a brand-new series I have decided to call habits, Habits, Habits. Because the importance of developing strong habits is so important it needs to be said three times. Now it is important to distinguish between good habits and bad habits. Good habits are those things that everyone says they wish they did more of. Bad habits are those things that everyone says they wish they did less of. Examples of bad habits are: I want to stop getting drunk every weekend.

The healthy habit might say: I want to take better care of my health by making better choices. Why are bad habits so hard to kick, and good habits are so hard to start or maintain? The metaphor I like to think of is: habits are a kind of muscle. Bad habits are usually stronger muscles that have been developed over years. As anyone who has ever stepped in a gym knows, you’re not starting off with the heaviest weight in the gym. This is because your muscles are not yet large enough to take on the heavier loads. I think it is the same with habits.

Many people don’t like reading, is this because books don’t naturally hold some interest? No, but speaking as someone who once hated reading, and knowing how difficult it can be to keep at it, to becoming the book lover I am today. Reading, like everything comes down to habit, and habits can be created. It’s just a matter of finding the right weight to start with. Before we try and move the hundred-pound dumbbells, first we start with the five pounds. Before we read Shakespeare, we first read doctor Seuss. And before that, we learn our letters. We walk before we can run. Imagine the frustration a baby would have it was told it needed to run or walk before crawling. Think how much failure the hypothetical baby would face.

No one expects a baby to run, and no one expects it to walk before at least scooting itself along a rug. So too, should we view good habits in the same way. Habits, if done correctly, if developed can become the strong, successful muscle that lead your life to incredible changes. The first thing that needs to be done is to identify where you are weak. If you are saying (or perhaps thinking) you want to make a change, that you want to quit all bad habits and only have good habits. Then it might be wise that we stick to the gym metaphor. The muscle of building and keeping good healthy habits is likely so weak and fatigued that it becomes overloaded rather quickly. My advice is to start with something small. My usual recommendation is to start making your bed every morning for a week. Let that be the only thing added to your routine. You might feel tempted to add more on the second or third day, but know there is a reason for keeping it to one thing at a time.

This way, we are doing an isolation movement. Focusing on targeting a single muscle. Now you might ask, “What about my bad habits? Bad habits that you have strengthened to lopsided proportions are the result from overusing the bad habit muscle(s). Depending on how long this bad habit has been developing will result in more reliance on the stronger muscle. Again, this is why I recommend focusing on adding one thing. It is true in habits and in gym etiquette. Form is everything.

Rather than asking you to stop doing bad habits, or over relying on the stronger muscles, I am simply asking you to focus on strengthening the weaker good habit muscles. For some of you out there these good muscles will be more neglected than others. It will take more effort to focus on developing good habits. It is not impossible. Just as I repeat habits, three times, I repeat It is not impossible. My advice, is do not look at the hundred pound dumbbells and sigh, thinking, how will I ever get to lifting that weight. Instead focus on the immediate task. Focus on the beginning steps. The good habits that will strengthen your good habit muscles. Before we can run, we walk, before we can read, we learn our letters. We develop the fundamentals that lead towards excellence. And yes habits, habits, habits, require fundamentals to build on.