From November 22nd, it's 40 days until the new year. THIS is the time to test drive your habits, resolutions and plans for the coming year. Try them and tweak them, and on January 1st you'll hit the ground running.
In previous years, I was too ambitious. I'd thought of wonderful schedules and habit trackers and the like, which would all magically fall into place when January hit. Yeah, that never went well. You failed - with capital F-A-I-L.
Think of the habits you'd like to implement in the next year and start implementing them now. Build them up gradually, if you have many goals or if they take a long time. For example, you want to meditate for 20 minutes a day? See if you can do 5 minutes a day. Or: you want to work out for an hour 3 times a week. Start with 2x 20 minutes. Journal 3 pages? Let's see if you can make half a page and keep it up daily.
Keep evaluating. Why did or didn't it work? Is this habit bringing me more than I put into it? Is this realistic? Do I even still want it? Then go back to the drawing board. Mercilessly cut out what won't work - for whatever reason.
For those of you who struggle with perfectionism like I do, let's try a period of deliberate imperfectionism. Try all the habits you want, but don't do them as perfect as you would want to do them. Just try them in little, but frequent bits. Over time, you might find what is perfect for you.
Here is my habit wishlist and in brackets how I'll test drive them:
Daily:
- 15 minutes of cleaning (5 minutes)
- Read 15 pages (5 pages)
- 15 minutes of mediation (5 minutes)
- 15 minutes of journalling (5 minutes)
- eat under 1500 calories (1800)
- write for 15 minutes (write 15 sentences)
- 30 minutes of walking/biking (not daily, 4x a week)
- either call a friend/family member OR do something for my volunteering gig (3x a week)
- drink 8 glasses of water (6, including coke zero)
- 8 hours of sleep (minimum of 7)
Weekly:
- Meal prep 2x (1x)
- Exercise 3x - this is aside from the cardio (2x)
- Meet up with a friend 2x (1x)
Anyone want to join? Anyone interested in updates?