23-192 Make it a Habit #3

Today’s Mandala Message: Four New Habits

This week I’m working through Principle #34 from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” entitled “Develop four new success habits a year”. I set my intention today to ponder the idea of creating four new habits for the year. Canfield suggests: “Start by listing four new habits you would like to establish in the next year. Work on one habit every quarter. If you work diligently on building one new habit every 13 weeks, you won’t overwhelm yourself with an unrealistic list…research now shows that if you repeat a behavior for 13 weeks it will be yours for life.” Now granted his suggestion seems to imply to do this at the beginning of the year and I say how about starting now. A year is a year regardless of what day you initiate it.

I have admit my “let’s do it” attitude wants to jump in immediately to start on all four habits (see yesterday’s MotD). A workable compromise for me would be to begin the four habits now at a much smaller scale with the intent of bringing them up to full speed throughout the year.

1. full version: establish zones and dedicate each to a day of the week for cleaning/maintaining that zone. easier beginning version: dedicate 15 minutes, three days a week on a household task.
2. full version: spend 1-3 hours a week updating and maintaining my finances/budget. easier beginning version: dedicate 15 minutes, three days a week bringing my checking account reconciliations up-to-date.
3. full version: on a daily basis, track my food, my water intake, and my weight into my MyFitnessPal account. easier beginning version: track what I eat for breakfast at least 5 days a week.
4. full version: limit my social media viewing to 30 minutes a day; limit my email processing to just two times a day. easier beginning version: actually, I think I can start implementing this one as is.

Over the next four days, I’ll explore some other super simple habits I could start now based on BJ Fogg’s book “Tiny Habits”.

A good mindfulness practice would be to ponder what one new habit you could implement over the 13 weeks.

So how about you? What four new habits would you like to implement over the next 365 days? Which one would you start with? Could you start with easier versions?

In order to design
successful habits and
change your behaviors,
you should do three things.
Stop judging yourself.
Take your aspirations and
break them down
into tiny behaviors.
Embrace mistakes as discoveries
and use them to move forward.” 

— B.J. Fogg

Blessings,

Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas

An Invitation

I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.