I’ve been thinking a lot lately about forming healthy habits. After all, it’s my habits that will make or break this journey. Actually, it is my habits that HAVE broken my journey up to this point. It’s clear that I need some new habits! The other day, I mentioned my goals and gave examples of how I hope to achieve them. What I really want is for these actions to become good habits, and for the bad habits to go away!
It got me thinking about what I do right now that I would refer to as a habit:
- brush my teeth
- shower
- throw in a load of laundry each morning
- go to church
- check Facebook and email many times a day
- drive through McDonald’s for sweet tea
- grab a fried chicken sandwich and fries to go with that tea
- late-night snacking in front of the TV
- staying up too late
I do all of the above things without giving them a second thought. So what would happen if the following things became habits that I never had to think about:
- prayer and Bible study
- sleeping 8 hours a night
- drinking green smoothies
- journaling what I eat
- drinking plenty of water
- exercising
Wow! Can you imagine? I have to believe that I will look and feel better. That I would be well on my way to honoring God with this body.
Why aren’t these things habits already? Probably because I don’t do them every.single.day.
You’ve got to do it every day.
The one thing I am sure of is that if something becomes a habit, it is difficult to break. Just ask a smoker . . . or someone on Facebook. If I get in bed and suddenly realize I forgot to brush my teeth, it doesn’t matter how exhausted I am, I’m getting back up. And me and Facebook? . . . well, let’s just say that some habits for sure need to be broken!
So in an effort to make good, healthy habits, that will impact my daily life and my future health, I have decided to really focus on one of these habits-to-be at a time, starting with daily prayer and Bible study. That’s not to say that I won’t be drinking water or tracking what I eat. Those things just won’t be the main focus in the beginning. If I miss a day of tracking, I won’t sweat it. That will become my focus another week.
I’ve heard it takes doing something for 30 days before it becomes a habit. So I will stagger these things 2 weeks at a time so that after the first 2 weeks, I’ll be working on 2 habits simultaneously, but in different stages. We’ll see how that works! If it works like I hope, I should be well on my way to making all of these actions, habits.!
I am beginning habit #1 this week:
Begin each day with prayer and Bible study
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. ~2Timothy 3:16-17
What new habits are you forming?
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