• Old habits are hard to break.
• New habits are harder to create.

These statements make it sound like our actions are pretty far out of our control. And truthfully, many of our daily actions run on autopilot…motor patterns that we’ve created day after day which take zero thought to execute (i.e. a habit). Think about brushing your teeth. How much thought do you really put into that process? My guess is next to none!

Adjusting habits is a well-studied topic. There are literally tons of books, article, blogs, podcasts & memes on how to eliminate old & build new habits. This article is not about either changing or creating habits. This article is about taking inventory on the habits you’ve actually broken & the habits you’ve actually created.

The timeframe we’ll use is 2 years. Why 2 years? To me it just feels right. It’s enough time to consider a habit “broken” & just enough time to consider one “established”. So, think back…before March 2020… What habits did you have at that point that wished to break? What new habits did you want to create? Now, here’s the BIG question: Have you accomplished either?

This is an important question to consider because time is an excellent judge of our progress. In doing my own reflection, here are my answers: Yes and No.

The Yeses:

• Reading More – About 4 years ago I set this as my New Year’s Resolution. And I am happy to say that this one has stuck! I believe I’ve been successful with this one because I found a good solution – I carry a book with me EVERYWHERE. If a client is 05min late, I read. If I’m waiting at a doc’s office, I read. If I have a few extra minutes before I need to leave for an appt, I read. I’m continually amazed by how reading a page here & a page there actually gets me through whole books! And viola! Goal accomplished!
• Drinking More Water – I remember making this a goal about 25 years ago! The funny thing is that this one has been an off & on experience (maybe it should be in the Maybe category?) for me! When I originally decided to drink more water, I successfully did it for a year or two. And then…it dropped off. Frankly, I’m a camel. I don’t enjoy drinking lots of water. I hardly ever feel thirsty. I don’t feel like being better hydrated makes me feel any differently…other than I have to go to the bathroom all the time…which honestly…I find irritating. Being better hydrated certainly doesn’t make me feel like I look any better!! So…there are few rewards…in my mind. But, I KNOW it’s good for me so I’ve gotten back on the water wagon. I’ve been successful for about a year & half now. Talk to me in 2 years…we’ll see!
• Limiting Social Media – This one has made me very happy. About 3 years ago I went through “business efficiency” training. In this course we closely examined how we spent every minute of every work day. My “work days” are a bit weird – 12hrs on certain days, 6-8hrs on others. But, when I tracked how I spent my work time, I discovered quite a bit of wasted time…particularly around social media. So, I set boundaries: 10min in the morning, 10min in the evening. I set a timer to keep me honest. What I’ve found is that 20min is all the social media I really need. It’s just enough time to respond to inquiries, messages & relevant posts as well as post my own good content. But not so much time that I mindlessly scroll. And the unintended bonus? I’m a lot less frustrated, angry & mad at the world!! 😉

The Noes:

• Meditation – For about a year I meditated about 10min 4-5x per week. It was great. I LOVED it & I loved what it did for my mental clarity, calmness & control. It got me through a nasty injury & long recovery process. It helped me develop new tools to get back to sleep when I inevitably wake up at 2:00AM. It taught me the importance of being in the moment & giving 100% attention to “right now”…not yesterday, not tomorrow…but “right now”. I’m not even sure why I stopped doing it…but I did. And since I stopped, I’ve tried to get back to regularly doing it again. But…unfortunately it hasn’t worked. I frankly haven’t been able to prioritize it. The good thing is that I know I’ll try again someday!
• Journaling – This is something that I’d really like to get into the habit of doing…but I’ve never gained traction with it. I have journaled. When I was in regular counseling, journaling was an important & regular part of my healing process. I’ve also journaled my nutrition & workouts in order to better assess cause & effects. I know it works. I know it’s useful. I know it helps us remember what has worked & why it’s worked. But, I have yet to create a habit with this. Again, maybe someday!

So there you have it! The areas I’ve been able to create habit change…and the areas I haven’t. We all have things we need to work on, right?!

What are you answers? Take a moment to reflect on this. The answers might surprise you – both in the yeses and the noes. If the no list is larger than the yes list, don’t get discouraged. Just remember, it’s the little changes made regularly that, over time, make the biggest differences!

If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.

James Clear