June 6, 2010

Creating New Habits

A Slovenian proverb says: "A habit is like an iron shirt". If we want to change something about us, we have to replace an old habit with a new one, like changing a shirt. If we know the old shirt is made of iron, we know we'll need more time, energy and effort to take it off. It's the  same with "bad" habits... the habit may not necessarily be bad per se, like biting your nails,  but it might be too time consuming for example even if I enjoy it.  

Some say it takes 14 -21 days to create a new habit (like drinking a glass of water every morning) and up to 60 days for more demanding new habits (like for doing 50 sit-ups every morning). They also say you have to take one habit at a time and work on it for 30 days. Only after you've acquired the first one, you proceed with the next one. It's easier to do if you reward yourself or make it fun. How to accomplish that? I guess it's all about the mind outwitting will power. And my will power is weak. But I still want to challenge myself! 

The first "bad" habit I will be fighting already turned into an addiction and I don't respond well to addictions (after a period of time) - I check on my e-mail, FB, blogs several times a day and what most annoys me is that I don't answer my e-mails/leave comments when I do  but I leave it for the next time I log in! So the new habit for June is: connect to Internet max twice a day and only when you have the time to reply to possible e-mails or the time to read the blogs and leave comments.

My reward when (see? I didn't use "if") I succeed? More free time and more relaxed eyes:))) How to make it more fun? Go play with Pupa or the turtles instead of turning the PC on. Yeah, that should do it.


I will let you know how am I doing.

3 comments:

Louise said...

That's a worthy goal. And a habit that I should acquire myself.

Anonymous said...

You can do it! Good luck. :)

The Zadge said...

I have the same internet addiction/lack of attention problem - constantly viewing my favorite sites, meaning to comment later. I think I'll try this too!

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