The act of doing something day after day is valuable. It is how we make progress towards anything.
Why, then, is it so hard to get started? To keep going?
I know as well as you do that its all about habit.
Our lives are the product of our habits. Who we are, how we view ourselves, and how others perceive us are all based on our habits. We are the direct outcome of the things we do (or don't do) every day. Therefore, if we are unhappy with ourselves and our lives, we are really unhappy with the result of our habits.
But habits, as the word hints at, are hard to change. And new habits can be incredibly difficult to create.
So how do we go from a life and self-image that we don't like, perhaps ever abhor, to one that we love?
There are a million answers on the internet. Many of them will offer you a quick solution. If you just wake up at a certain time, drink this tea first thing, and workout until you have no time for anything else, in 90 days you'll have the life of your dreams.
Yeah, right.
If the life of your dreams is working out and drinking tea, I guess that might work. But if you have any other aspirations, you might want to try a different path. Not that working out, drinking tea, and getting up early are bad for you by any stretch, but they are not in and of themselves a way to the life of your dreams. They are small parts of a bigger picture that might help you. Or they might not. It depends on your goals.
Your dream life is different than mine. It has to be, because we are different people. While many people may share similar dreams, in that one aspect of their dream may be the same, their dream life cannot be the same. We as individuals are too different and varied to allow such uniformity in a thing as broad and all-encompassing as a dream life. There can be no uniformity when confronted with such infinite variety, except by happenstance, or through rigid compliance to a set of values defined by someone else.
We give up enough of our time to values assigned by others, in the form of a job or career whose primary purpose is a paycheck that will hopefully leave you enough breathing room to pursue the rest of your dreams in your remaining time.
Now, maybe you are further along the path than I am, and you have a job or career that aligns with your dreams. That's fantastic. Seriously, no sarcasm intended. But even then, you have found your way to that place by figuring out what habits and actions will get you there, and by avoiding the one's that won't, particularly those that take you away from that place.
I have a long way to go.
The good news is I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going. I want to be a fiction writer, poet, great husband, great friend, and healthy enough to enjoy it.
Everything else is meaningless.
But I spend a lot of time on everything else. I have habits that are not aligned with the vision of where I'm going. And I lack habits that will help me get there.
Well, then get rid of everything that doesn't help you on the path to that vision, and spend more time on everything that does.
Simple, right?
Sure, as simple as starting new habits and stopping old ones.
Over the next month, I'm going to try and change my daily, weekly, and monthly habits. I'm going to eliminate the things that take time and energy away from the life I want. I'm going to cultivate new habits that bring me closer to that vision. And I'm going to blog about the process. I'm going to share my struggles and my successes, in the hope that someone might find this useful.
And when I'm done, I'm going to compile all these blogs as a book and publish it, so if you are into that sort of thing, you'll be able to get all of this as a book, physical or digital,
Join me tomorrow for chapter one, Clarifying Your Vision.
No comments:
Post a Comment