I feel like September is the start of the New Year more than January. Kids back to school, new shoes, different schedules – a season of fresh starts. There is an adjustment time – transitions to embrace, a new rhythm to step into as the summer clothes get packed away and sweaters come out of the closet. It is no wonder that during this time of year my clients seek creating new habits. There is a theme of starting over. They want to shed extra weight put on from BBQs, happy hours and second helpings of pie and ice cream.
The children have new projects, schedules and change to juggle – it seems appropriate to begin our own new agenda. Years ago a client wanted to stop smoking and although addiction was not my specialty or part of my training, I suggested she replace the habit with a new, life giving one. So each morning she practiced her new action of getting out of bed and doing a yoga pose instead of reaching for a cigarette and lighter on her night stand.
More than five years later she doesn’t reach for a cigarette at all.
Is there a new habit you want to make a part of your daily life? Here are some tips to get started:
- Pay attention to the thing you are constantly thinking/talking about doing and making excuses at the same time to not do them as you wait around for the right time.
- Write down the habit you want to create in a journal, notebook, or on a Post It. “Meditate” “Drink More Water” “Exercise” “Read”
- Identify the habits or time consuming activities that prevent you from starting this new way of being. i.e.: social media, TV, house work.
- Every time you reach for your phone, the remote or the broom – STOP – do your new activity instead.
- Start small. If you want to read an hour a day – begin with ten minutes. Add more time each day/week.
- Keep reminders of your desired habit in view – place a book you want to read for example, on the counter, coffee table, night stand or any place you look every day. Put your Post It on the bathroom mirror. Set an alarm on your clock to meditate, exercise, drink water, read or your new habit of choice. Write it on the calendar and show up to it like it is an appointment for your well-being as if your life depends on it.
- If you miss a day, week or two weeks – begin again. Set yourself up for success by taking incremental steps – one day at a time.
It’s about starting. You don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect. Just begin. Leave the excuses for last season and attach yourself to how you imagine feeling once this new habit is engrained fully into your routine. Decide on the rhythm you want to move to and start stepping.
Cheers, Jenny
