There’s an old saying that I’ve heard and read countless times. It says to form a habit you have to do
something for 21 days in a row. Now usually it seems easier to form a bad habit
than it does to form a good habit. Ever wonder how you fell into watching TV
every night, or eating macaroni and cheese for dinner; because it’s easy. Bad
habits are easy to form because they don’t take much effort, usually because
they arose out of some need for a short cut. You found that short cut and BANG,
it’s a bad habit. Okay, so that 21 days may be an arbitrary number, and it’s
fair to say that not all people will need 21 days and some people may need
more. But you should get the idea behind the premise. Doing something
consistently for a specific period of time will help form patterns in your
behavior that eventually becomes second nature.
So, why the hell am I bothering with all this you might ask? Easy. I
want to form Good habits. Why does it seem that doing ‘good’ things for ourselves
are so much harder? I’d say it’s because anything worth doing takes effort.
Personally, I’m trying to add a good habit to my daily routine right now. What
I’m trying to do is jog every morning, for just one mile. See, I go to the gym
three days a week, but most of the rest of my time is spent not doing much
physical activity at all. I’m not lazy, just not very active. And to be honest,
I have a few pounds of vanity fat I want to work off. I know it seems
ridiculous to try and sculpt my body to look like a Greek god, or fitness
model, which is only part of the reason I’m working on this new habit. The main
reason is health, both mental and physical. Being active helps the body be more
healthy, running helps circulation, breathing capacity, just to name a few
things. For the mind, activity helps creativity and imagination. Physical
activity makes the mind work better and faster. I’ve noticed that the more
active I am, the better and more consistent I am with writing and actually getting
words on the page. Now that’s a good motivator, at least for me. You’ve
probably heard another old saying, ‘healthy body, healthy mind’. Well I think
it’s true. So I’m putting that idea to the test.
Every morning I get up at 6 am, put my jogging clothes on and head out.
It usually takes me around 11 minutes to run around that mile track. Yeah, I’m
a pretty slow runner. To be fair, it’s really 1.1 miles around several blocks,
but that’s not really important. What is important is that for eight days so
far I’ve gotten my butt out of bed that early just to do it. Now I know some of
you will say ‘I just can’t do it’ and you’re right. You can’t, not with that
attitude. You’re certain to fail. You have to change your mind set. Also, it’s
easier to think of doing an activity just once. Don’t worry about tomorrow, or
the next day, or the next week. Just worry about this one time, today. You can
do something once can’t you? Even if you think you can’t, can you at least try?
Remember, bad habits are formed because we’re looking for short cuts. Sleeping
in or not bothering to try is a short cut. They are also bad habits. So look at
trying something new as a one-day-at-a-time endeavor, 21 times in a row.
If you fail, at least you tried. If you didn’t try you’ve already
failed. So give success a chance. You never know, 21 days from now, you might just
be on your way to a life-long good habit that does a world of good. Go for it!
Thanks for reading. Comments and questions are always welcome.
