New Habits

It's very easy to live the same way every day and have very little or nothing change. I try to not live my life that way. I was once told that as soon as you stop changing you become old. It's true for anything, and is expecially evident on products (like clothing) that cannot change themselves and become out of date... old. But not just old. Old and undesireable.

A couple of weeks ago my wife gave me an article to read in a magazine, and I can't remember what the article was about, but it was written by a sociologist or something - someone who studies the patterns of human behaviour. It takes 30 days to form a habit, so he decided a while ago that every month he'll start three new habits that he has to maintain for the month, after which he can decide to keep them or discard them.

What this does is force him to consciously do new things, and keeps himself from getting into ruts. It means that when change becomes necessary he is already in the habit of change, so it's not a concern.

I decided it was a pretty good idea, so I'm going to embark on three new habits each month, as a lifestyle choice.

I haven't finalized what they will be but, ideas so far...

• Eat 2 pieces of fruit each day
• No chocolates unless I've never had them before
• Drink 1.5L of water at work every day
• Read for 30 minutes every day
• Write a card to someone every day
• Compliment someone other than my wife every day (I already compliment her often)
• Do 50 push-ups before breakfast
• Sleep at least 56 hours per week
• Tidy my desk at work every day before I leave for home
• Learn a new word every day

These are all ideas, and by December 1st, I'll know what I'm going to do. Changing your life is all about small steps of progress. And mostly what it is, is getting in the habit of change.