Some Habits I Would Like to Cultivate
While it’s a little arbitrary, I think the spirit of New Year’s which gives people a chance to reflect and make changes in their life makes it a great celebration. I was reading some thoughts Leo Babauta shared on habits today and was feeling inspired. He suggests trying to form just one positive habit per month. So if you can write down 12 habits you would like to form, that will give you one thing to focus on and work towards each month. I think it’s a nice concept in general: every month choosing a habit to cultivate in your life and making part of your daily routine about instilling that habit. Here are some habits I’d like to cultivate in my life:
- Drink more water. I’m generally okay about this, but I go for the bottle of fuzzy soda more than I wish I did. I actually went about 5 years without drinking soda once in my life. Then something happened to where I just went back to consuming it like crazy as is typical of many Americans. I’d like to start paying attention to when I feel an urge to reach for a soda and choose water instead.
- Waste less time online. I waste an unbelievable amount of time on the Internet. I find it absolutely fascinating. All of the tantalizing information and entertainment sucks me in like a bug to a light. In any given session at my computer online, there reaches a point where it’s no longer really a positive in my life to still be sitting there. The habit I would like to instill is to notice this and get off the computer immediately rather than click around idly for minutes or hours longer. It’s quite honestly depressing to think about how much time I’ve wasted online in the past several years.
- Read more books. This will be an easier habit to instill thanks to the Kindle my parents got me for Christmas. I’m really loving that thing. What a great little gadget. It satisfies my neurotic need to always be playing with something electronic. I read Slaughterhouse-Five on it in three days. There’s no reason I can’t manage to read an average of an hour a day. I can find that time easily just by cutting out the idle Internet browsing.
- Exercise daily. I was in a great exercise routine before I went back to the U.S. for Christmas. Then, two weeks of traveling and a vacationer’s mindset made me fall off the wagon. Classic tale, really. To me, daily physical exercise is perhaps the most important thing you can be doing for your life. I’m not going to bother with all sorts of firm goals like, “I need to bench x pounds by x date!” That type of an approach seems to arbitrarily pigeon-hole me into an exercise regimen I’ll likely quickly grow tired of. It’s not like I’m trying to train for something in particular that requires a highly specialized workout routine. I just want to exercise each day. So the main priority is finding an exercise that I think to be fun. So maybe squats and deadlifts in the gym one day, yoga the next, whatever. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s something, so I’ll just play it by ear and go with what sounds good on any given day.
- Grind the small details. I can really suck at life when it comes to taking care of menial, tedious tasks. Things like running errands, cleaning, or working on a personal budget just madden me because I get bored with maintenance tasks. Unfortunately, if you neglect these little daily maintenance tidbits, your world can fall out of orbit. I want to do a better job of taking an extra moment to get the details right. For example, take an extra moment to see which bottle of water is the best value rather than grabbing the first one I see (I don’t generally care what brand I’m drinking). Or spending a few minutes in the evening to make a list of things I know I’ll be glad if I remember to do the next day. These boring little details might not be glamorous, but they add up and can lead to increased happiness, I think.
- Be more engaging with others. Going along with the theme of wanting to slow down and not rush through things, I want to do a better job of investing in personal interactions with others. Sometimes I tend to just gloss over this. Like why should I have to bother with having to think of something nice to say to the person behind the coffee counter? But that “just give me my damned latte” attitude is so unfortunate. It’s no way to go through life. I’d like to get better at taking an extra moment to be pleasant with others.
- Less caffeine. I’ve been trying to be really aware lately of how I feel when I consume caffeine. I think I generally don’t particularly care for it. The short-term boost of energy (not to mention the soothing ritual that securing a cup of coffee provides) can be luring, but I ultimately find the drug to be a net negative in my life. Maybe a nice compromise to get the soothing ritual while cutting down on the caffeine consumption would be to drink tea instead. I love tea. A warm cup of tea with a little honey stirred in might just be the greatest thing about being alive. Yea, that’s what I’ll do: less coffee, more tea.
- Be a better dog owner. I have to admit, having a dog can sometimes be a big pain. Maybe you’re tired and ready for bed and the dog is standing by the door like he wants to go out for a walk to pee and all you want to do is just flip his switch to “off” so you don’t have to deal with it. I would actually encourage people to be really thoughtful about these things before they adopt a dog. For many people, as it was with me, my dog was an emotional acquisition. I didn’t really spend much time considering the practical aspects of the dog owner’s lifestyle. It can take a lot of time and energy. Sometimes I get frustrated with my dog for having to spend time dealing with him. But I’ve had him for six years now and he’s a part of the package for better or worse. I might as well figure out how to be more patient with him and budget more of my time to keeping him happy and healthy.
I could probably think of a few more things, but I think that’s a pretty good list for now. What’s on your list?
Happy New Year, everyone.
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