Good Habits Don’t Require Magic
Good habits don’t happen by accident and they don’t require magic.
I’m not the most routine oriented person, but I can hold down the basics. I eat well, mostly home-cooked (and I’m by no means a top chef), I move my body regularly, I sleep decently well, I am connected with my friends and family, I stay hydrated, I have consistent creative outlets, and manage to keep the pieces of my business up and running.
Some of these things happen at the same time each day or week, and some of them don’t. But they still happen.
Because I am not the type to lock things into a strict routine, I have had (and continue to have) a loooooot of practice in how to keep things going and how to keep all the pieces moving. If you ask my Mom, she will tell you this is something I also vent about quite often: I’m just one person! How are there always so many things I’m supposed to do!
For all that I consider myself creative-minded, I also really value systems. And behavior is very much impacted by systems. We have bazilllions of cues throughout each day that remind us to do certain things, which means we have bazillions of opportunities to make changes and insert the cues and behaviors that benefit us most.
As I’ve said previously, we also all need a mix of discipline and flexibility. I keep a basket by my front door to put my keys in the same place every single time I come home. I am never late because I’m looking for my keys (although I’ll readily admit I’m often late for plenty of other reasons). I lift weights on either Monday OR Tuesday, because it depends on what I’ve done over the weekend and how tired my body is. I find that applying discipline to the actions that don’t need flexibility (I don’t need to have a car-key scavenger hunt every day for excitement), leaves more decision-making for the things that benefit from flexibility.
When we meet someone who seems to be ultra-disciplined and have all their ducks in a row it may be easy to dismiss them as being different and just assume that we could never be that way. But I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to be “that way” to also have your ducks in a row. Or chickens. Or peacocks, or whatever you’re working with. It’s ok for YOUR success to look different from ultra-disciplined duck lady.
Behavior change is a science. If you want to read about it for yourself, I highly recommend checking out Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. And if you just want to chat about it, you know where to find me.
Good luck out there and happy duck-wrangling.
