It is the second day of a new year. The second day of 1) my new eating regime. 2) my new exercise regime. 3) my new writing regime. Funny, if it were a new car, a new coat, a new hairdo, I'd cherish the newness and go to great lengths to show it off. If I can do it with a new car, I can do it with a new regime. Live it up. Cherish it. Celebrate it. Today, I'm batting 2 for 2. Bases are loaded and I'm on a home run streak of creating new habits to replace the old, worn out habits that have kept me stuck in inertia, dissatisfaction and dismay.
I'm not sure if it takes 11 days or 21 days to create a new habit. I do know that since my dentists appointment the week before Christmas, I have started flossing my teeth twice a day -- and I have to do it now. It's habit.
I have no idea who Robert Puller is, other than he is a pretty smart guy. He said, “Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as are bad habits.”
Letting go of what doesn't work in my life and stepping into what does. A good habit to get into.
So.... if I can learn to floss my teeth twice a day, what else can I learn to do that's good for me? If I create enough good habits, will they, like light expelling the dark, push out the bad?
Can I teach myself to want to eat veggies 3x a day? Drink 3x as much water? Work out for an hour 3x per week.
The possibilities for new habits forming are limitless. It's not that I'm changing existing bad habits. It's more that I'm replacing old, outdated and unhelpful ones with habits that honour my desire to make each day the best day of my life. When I indulge in habits that don't support me, I can't live a beautiful life every day!
Yesterday, I went to see my mother at the hospital. We played cards -- a new habit forming. Doing something different with my mother than I've done in the past. Her hearing is not great, so long conversations can be frustrating and, they generally focus on her telling me her woes and me telling her what's wrong with her and what she needs to do differently. She's 85. She doesn't need me to tell her to stop doing what she's doing, or to do something she's not doing. She needs me to listen to her without judgement, condemnation or criticism. Playing cards takes both our minds off what we've always done -- argue -- and lets us spend time doing something together that's fun. She's living proof you're never too old to learn something new. She said she'd never played Gin before -- harrumph!-- She beat me fair and square!
Life ebbs and flows and with it I flow in and out of creating my beautiful life every day. I make choices that build new habits -- or entrench old ones. The choice is mine. Today, I choose to create pathways to living it up, every moment of every day, passionately and fearlessly.
My New Year's resolution -- to live it up!
The question is: Are you living it up or living down to your limited expectations of yesterday's old habits keeping you stuck in doing what doesn't work for your life today?
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