How are you doing so far? Have you set yourself a rule to dismantle a bad habit? Have you allowed yourself to imagine what your life could look like if you made some changes? You don't have to do it all now, you know. Keep the emails and maybe do one thing now out of the seven suggested. It would still be a great start!

Today we are starting a good habit and I hope you have read yesterday's email on breaking a habit because we are going to use the same kind of thinking. 

You might be wondering which habit you should take up right now, as most of us usually have a few in mind. Think about the area in your life you want to improve most, the one that is troubling you the most. Now, of all the changes you could make, which one would have the most impact? Which one would prepare you best for the other changes you would like to make? It is worth pondering on these questions for a few minutes either in your mind or in your journal.

Two big obstacles and how to overcome them

1 Good habits that we decide to acquire might be inspiring to start with but they often end up feeling like a 'should'. Yesterday, we saw how to turn a 'shouldn't' into a 'don't' and today we are turning a 'should' into a 'do'. This work really well for resolutions like exercising, running, drinking more water, writing every day, etc. The idea is to set up a small habit that will progressively take you to the result you want. For instance, let's say you want to exercise more this year. The resolution of working out three whole sessions each week is too big to sustain all of a sudden. So you could start with doing one minute of movement every morning. You establish a habit that becomes a rule: "I move my body every morning, I just do". You carry on until you feel you can increase the time. It is really important to go slowly so that the habit becomes second nature and you can do it every single day even when you are in a hurry. Moving your body becomes second nature, a rule of life and you will be more likely to fit in a longer, separate session at other times. 

2 The other obstacle is your environment. This applies to all habits from exercising to having a regular spiritual or creative habit. Your environment needs to support the new habit by triggering it. Let's say you would like to start running for five minutes every morning, you can set all your running gear on a chair by your bed the night before. You can have the picture of a woman doing a sun salutation on your wardrobe if you want to do that for a minute every morning. You can have a box or a cart of art supplies by your dining table to remind you and make it easier to practise. Create an environment rich in triggers that will encourage you to keep your new habit going. Remember to start with a very small step and to keep going with the small step for quite a while because it reinforces success every day and that is the reward that will help you keep going.

As for yesterday, I am attaching a tracking sheet. Printing it will prove that you are serious about this new habit and are willing to be accountable to yourself. I can't stress enough how important this is!

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