Tough Going

   Good Morning, and Happy July!  Today, I am thinking about habits, and I know, I know, I talk to you about habits all the time.  But stick with me here. I had a thought this week which opened my eyes to something I hadn't realized before. 

  We all have dreams, goals, and ambitions for our lives, and habits are what bridge the gap between  who we are and who we want to be. But a lot of the time habits seem really hard to create. Starting a new way of eating, a new exercise routine, a new personal development plan, or a new morning schedule is daunting, and sometimes we get too overwhelmed to even start.  But the thing is, habits are only hard when they're new. Because after we do them for a while they become, well, habit. What makes habits so tough then is just starting them. The beginning phase of anything is hard. New routines, new habits, changes of any kind require us to discipline ourselves and learn new things. But once we get past this stage, it isn't so difficult.

  The real problem then is, if you're anything like me, you might start and stop a habit a lot before you really get it. And when we continually start and stop new habits, we never get past the hard phase. This makes us perceive new habits as even more difficult than they really are. So the key to making our habits easier is to get out of the new phase as quickly as possible.  And the only way to take a habit from the new phase to the routine phase is to repeat it. Every Single Day. 

  I've heard a lot from experts about doing challenges. 21 days, 30 days, 60 days, even 90 days. And I've never really paid much attention to it. But this last month I decided to get serious about a few things, so I started a 31 day challenge, and since I know I'm prone to stopping and starting, I enlisted the help of a few friends and social media to keep me accountable. And guess what happened?  My habits became easy! Why, because I stuck with them long enough to get through the difficult beginning phase. Exercising no longer seems like some insurmountable chore.  I just do it, because it's part of my habit now. 

  Have you been wrestling with stopping and starting habits for a long time? Have you been stuck in the hard phase because you never stick with it long enough to make it routine? Now might be the perfect time for you to start a challenge. Pick a manageable habit; pick a time frame; enlist some friends if you have to, and do not quit! I promise you the reward is worth the effort. Stop living in the difficult beginning, and start living in the realm of habit. I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.L.W.