From Planning to Doing: On Goals and Habits

Let me just say this;  I talk a pretty good game but I am going to be very honest.  It isn't the planning that gets me.  It's the doing.  It's DOING the PLANNING, for Pete's sake.  ( That was just too funny to resist, sorry! :)

I wanted to talk about how I'm doing with my plan to get up earlier.  

It has become clear to me that if I want to accomplish the goal of getting up earlier every day in January I must make it a good habit.

On a whole, it's working pretty well.  I am trying to enlist Hubby in my plan.  I am envisioning how lovely it's going to be when I actually get up SO EARLY that I make my family a hot breakfast on cold winter mornings, pray over my kids before I send them out the door and even perhaps trek for about the town with the doggie because, Hey, it's morning and I'm Up and At 'Em!

Unfortunately, the hot breakfast thing has been sporadic.  I have fixed Hubby a few sandwiches that I hand to him as he dashes out the door.

"I'm sorry we're out of mayo, but I did put mustard on your ham sandwich and here is a paper towel so it doesn't fall apart!  Love you!"

Praying over the kids has sometimes ( lately mostly) been more in the format of an early morning text.

"I hope auditions go really well for you today!  I will be praying for you all day long.  Love you!"

Now let's switch gears and stop talking specifically about me.  Let's talk about a book I started reading last night.

It's called The How (and Wow!) of Habits by Carrie Willard.

In her concise and well written book Carrie discusses Bad Habits.  It struck me that sometimes the flip side of Goals is Bad Habits.  I mean, think about it.  Let's take a few of my bad habits and talk about them.

Goal:  Get Up Earlier for the month of January.
Bad Habit:  Staying Up Late

The Bad Habit effectively cancels out the goal!  Yikes!

I'm planning to delve more deeply into this Bad Habit breaking science soon so stay tuned!  And meanwhile, know that you are not alone if you are feeling a bit like "Oh, ugh!  What's the point!  All I do is mess up anyway."

Believe me, when I stumbled out of my room several minutes later than I'd planned this morning and had to face a surly, disappointed teenager who was COUNTING ON ME to get her to school EARLY so she could work on a speech project, I was NOT feeling especially victorious and like a winner!  But these habits, these goals . . .they take time.  And the rewards are real and they are worth fighting for.

So let's do it!  Let's fight!

~ Jennifer