Brave New Life

Day Thirty

Wow. Thirty whole days of writing this. It feels special right? It feels like I've really stuck to something and am seeing more progress than ever before in my life because of it. Interestingly, that was a part of something my current book, "Atomic Habits" by James Clear mentioned when I listened this morning. Here are all of my notes from this the book I took today:

Join a culture where your desired behavior is the norm, and you already have something in common with the tribe

Create a motivational ritual (pavlov yourself)

Ex: find something you really enjoy that genuinely makes you happy like taking a bubble bath. Create a ritual you do every single time before you take a bubble bath (listen to a certain song, take three deep breaths and smile, etc) then when that is established, do that same ritual before a hard habit that you don't enjoy but want to form (listen to that same song before starting your workout, etc)

Standardize before you optimize. You can't improve a habit that doesn't exist

Commitment device: a choice you make in the present that controls your actions on the future

Downscale habits until they can be done in two minutes or less until you form the habit, then begin increasing time/effort in that habit.

Make your bad habits impossible/inaccessible

Track your habits as much as possible, this will keep you goal focused

Maintaining habits:

Never miss more than one day. Get back into habits as soon as possible.

Bad workouts are better than no workouts. Even if there is no new progress, you are maintaining previous progress and reaffirming your identity through completing that habit

Get an accountability partner.

That last part is exactly what I've been doing here—writing this to an audience every day to keep myself accountable. Whether anyone at all ever reads past the description doesn't matter, just knowing someone might read about my failures and successes every day keeps me succeeding more often than not. 

Speaking of success, when I weighed myself this morning, I had lost three more pounds. My scale sometimes lies the first time, so I weighed myself a second time and then moved the scale to a different spot on the floor and weighed myself a third time just in case. I was starting to feel really stuck a few days ago and now it's like those three pounds jumped off of me overnight! 

In addition to those successes, I also made my bed today, maintained a good attitude, and compromised with myself when I had an intense mac and cheese craving. Instead of buying and eating an entire box of it like I used to often back in the day (and really wanted to), I bought a block of brie, baked it in the oven to ooey gooey perfection with some honey and then ate it with chicken bratwurst, apples, crackers, and broccoli for dinner. It wasn't the healthiest dinner, but it wasn't so bad and I am proud of myself for compromising instead of giving in. Besides that, it also gave me a little boost of joy to create a pretty charcuterie board and treat myself like I was a spoiled princess lounging around a castle being served various fruits, meats, and cheeses. 

Now I feel it's important to acknowledge where I did not win today. I did not get out of bed to my alarms in time to not have to rush to get ready. This has been a very annoying bad habit for me to break and I intend to take drastic measures to change it if I must. I did not exercise today. I am not happy about it but my lack of proper meal prep this week (not enough protein) left me starving and I could not wait a second longer to eat. I will get back on it tomorrow. 

I am however, writing this at a sensible time and planning to go to sleep early tonight in hopes that I can get up more easily tomorrow.  Overall I am giving myself a 3 today. I want so badly to say 4 because I did not entirely fail in anything today except exercise, but I did not succeed strongly in any one category either. I have also realized I need to go back and print out my growth scale and hang it above my desk, because I am already forgetting what the exact criteria is for each number. 

Anyway, I hope you all had stellar, exceptional, mind-blowingly over-achieving days. 

Til tomorrow my brave comrades,

-C.