Healthy Habits-It's Time!

"A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules." -Anthony Trollope

I am an underachiever by nature. It's a truth about myself that I loathe to own up to, but after nearly 40 years, I am coming out of denial. I have a hard time sticking with anything. I am a virtuoso in the art of procrastinating, which I am sure is a contributing factor. I envy those bloggers out there who decide to do 100 days of fitness, or cook every dish in Julia Child's cookbook in a year's time, or blog every day for a year. It seems as soon as I set a goal for myself all motivation goes out the door and that habit or talent I wished to cultivate suddenly has lost its appeal. Suddenly exercise seems pointless, scripture study is a chore, cooking is drudgery. I think I can safely say that I am not a goal oriented person and that there are very few actual healthy habits in my life. Ok I guess I faithfully make my bed everyday without fail. Talk about shooting for greatness. I kind of really hate this about myself. 

Sabrina's violin teacher encourages her students to do a 100 days in a row practice chart. If the student is inspired by this achievement she can even go onto a 365 days in a row practice chart. The rule is at least 5 minutes of practice everyday, but the goal being a full practice session at least five days a week. Sabrina reached 100 days of practice in a row several years ago and vowed she would never do that again. Perhaps I am dealing with a "mini me" in the case of that precious child. Oh sweet daughter of mine, learn from your mother. Goals are good. Daily habits are good. Sporadic efforts and half-hearted attempts are a lacklustre way to go through life! I try to blame motherhood on all of this, but I've been mediocre since my youth. I seem to eek out of the day enough measly minutes to check Facebook and my favorite blogs with great loyalty. This habit hardly merits recognition. In fact, faithful social media following may fall under the category of a bad habit, an addiction even.

So here's the deal. I need good habits. I need some accomplishments. I need to go out of this life saying, "Well there was that one thing I was successful at. I did this one thing faithfully everyday, and I am a better person for it." It seems that if one creates one good habit, she is likely to create more. It's kind of a muscle that becomes stronger as we use it more. I'm wondering if I ever got that muscle. But I'm determined to find it if it does indeed reside in some back closet of my soul.

But it has got to be something I'm excited about. I know that I should focus on the essentials first, but I can not even begin to count how many times I've tried to create a habit centered around the essentials. Daily exercise, prayer, scripture study, monthly temple attendance. Such habits really are the end goal, but right now I need success. I'm not going to have success unless it's something that right from the get go I long to do on a daily basis, not something I know I should do regularly. I am experiencing a success famine, so I need to start with something that allows the heavens to open and drop buckets of progress onto this dried up life of mine. It's a good life. A happy life. But I am seeing very little progress. I am in a rut. A deep rut. One so deep that it's going to take a serious jolt to get me on some good ground again.

Every day for a year is completely out of the question. Such an aspiration would be self-destruction for an underachiever such as myself. Remember attainability is paramount here. 100 days in a row?...ummmm I don't know. That's also really pushing it. Perhaps 30 days in a row. Maybe I could muster some level of devotion to such a goal.

So here we go. I'm verbalizing it in writing on my little blog in hopes that I will somehow feel accountability to you nebulous, nameless list of readers. This is a big step for someone as noncommittal as myself. 

Thirty days in a row of writing in my little blog. That's it. I know you're shaking at the very grandiose nature of my aspiration. I told you, one must start small. Baby steps. But I do love to write, and I need more practice. Perhaps 30 days will turn into 100 days. Perhaps the trickle effect will make its way to prayer and exercise, but for now simply getting onto the computer each day and writing my thoughts is enough.

So here we are. One day in a row. I'm really good at one day in a row. This is familiar ground. But I will see you tomorrow. And that's when we'll be diggin' where the taters are!