Have you ever tried to start a new habit only to have your day be so messed up that it makes it nearly impossible to continue? Maybe you’re a perfectionist and you weren’t able to continue your habit in the same way you normally do, therefore, you don’t find the habit worth doing that day?
Welcome to my life. My current goal is to get up every morning at 5 AM and write a blog post until I get to 50 total. I know for a FACT I would not be waking up at 5 AM this morning. Why? Because it’s 2:51 AM and my 8 month old daughter has been awake since 1:30 AM because of this sleep regression phase she is in.
FUN.
I don’t want to let the hardships of life win over discipline, so as I stay up and help support my wife as she tries to help our baby go back to sleep, I figured I’d write my post now so that I do not have to wake back up again at 5 AM because that would SUCK.
This is my constant battle and struggle. My schedule can be so unpredictable that I never know what I will and won’t be able to do on a given day. That is ministry life and this new world of parent life that I am trying to figure out.
But even with the obstacle of my unpredictable schedule, I am doing whatever I can to continue pushing forward in my habit building. Here are a few of the things I am tryin to do to keep momentum and not lose it:
1. Acknowledge the Unpredictable
I will argue till the end of time that awareness is the first step to any kind of success or progress. To acknowledge the possibility of change and unpredictability makes you hyper aware so that when changes do happen you can absorb the blows and move forward. Nothing will surprise you at that point.
2. Fight the Excuse of Perfection
I think the biggest habit buster is and always will be perfectionism. When you can’t do the same thing the same way at the same time it will always feel like a failure. You have to fight against that thought and remember that the setting and the time isn’t the primary goal most times. The goal is the action your building into a habit. It doesn’t need perfection, it just needs commitment.
3. Get Creative
If your goal is to do 100 push ups every day and you do 50 in the morning and 50 at night, there is a good chance you’re going to fail if you miss your morning set of 50. So maybe the best option for you is to break up your goal during the day. Maybe you can’t do your morning or night time set so you do 10 in your office at the start of every hour. That’s just one example, but you get the point. The goal is not the setting or the time. The goal is the action.
4. Push Through and Get it Done
Sometimes days will not workout the way you want them to. When those days happens, you just have to deal with it, put your head down and grind through it. It’s the way life works.
I wonder if I’m qualified to talk about a lot of these topics. I would venture to say I’m not because my goal is to just share things that I’m learning.
I am not the best habit builder by any means. I fail at more goals than I accomplish in my opinion, but this is still something I am trying to do myself.
I hope this would encourage and inspire you to do more. That’s all I want to do. I want to inspire you to learn more and be a better version of you.
Jadner Lugo's Blog 