Establishing A New Habit
Taking the Stairs
Around 1 month ago I started this new habit: Taking the stairs instead of elevators. A simple habit to help me at least have some “exercise” every day, I’ve been “sitting” too long. With only 2 exceptions:
- when on the way to work, always feel sleepy and powerless in the morning, maybe that’s an execuse or lack of motivation
- when with other people, just trying to fit in, although I raise my hand for tea or juice in a drinking party…
I use Lift app to track my progress, even though it was not a 30-day streak(forgot to check-in some days or had no out-door activities on the weekends), still I’m happy for the last 1 month. Feel stronger than before, wouldn’t be out of breath after climbing a long long stairs, and most important thing is I’ve established this mindset to always seek and choose stairs rather than elevators, this “choosing” process never occurs actually, since I’ve repeated so many times my initial response is just to find the stairs.
Tiny Achievement
This habit doesn’t require many efforts like other activities such as reading, running or practicing an instrument. But still I consider this a tiny achievement for myself. When I look back the past days or months, I can’t see myself making progress in neither professional nor personal life. I’m still kind of struggling with life. Compared with my past I spent less time on learning new things, writing blogs or even playing games.
Been thinking a lot recently and just like everyone I want to improve myself in various aspects but never really put them into actions. Thus I’m glad at least this habit made me realize there’s still things I can accomplish.
Next Habit
I want to commit myself to create a new habit every week, and if it works for me I’ll keep doing it. By “works for me” I mean like “get up early” can work for somebody but not for everyone.
I think this 1 week interval should work for me. It reminds me of the “1 percent improvement per day” method but finding out what improvement should I do today could be difficult, and what I’ve learned is repetition really matters. Define it, do it, repeat it. Your body would reflect that way without going through your brain.
So my new habit will be: Getting up at 8 am every weekdays and before 9 am on weekends. Ever since high school I’ve never made it, and I still have this thought or ‘fantasy’ that by getting up early I can make a difference in some aspects of my life. Every morning is in a rush now, sometimes I have to drop breakfast and dash into the station to catch up the train. I do not memorize many peaceful mornings in my life.
Time to reread some parts of the book: The Two-Minute Challenge: How to Reach Goals and Finish What You Start written by my friend Charles, it has very good strategies of making and keeping your goals.
