Yodeller

Forming a habit takes on average 21 days. This is now my 21st post. I have been writing every morning for the past 3 weeks. I think I have succeeded forming a habit.

3 weeks is enough time to get used to a new habit, accept it and make it part of your daily routine. It is nice streak to start with and it would be a shame to break it now. Even if it breaks it's a nice goal for the next streak record.

The time allocation has helped a lot. I know when I need to do this. Getting it done early in the morning gets it out of my mind and I can focus on the rest of the stuff for the day. Having it part of the morning routine has felt natural. I don't need to think about it, I can free my mind to think for example about what to write instead.

3 weeks is also enough time to see the change so that it's possible to see why it's worth to keep going.

Original goal was to improve my writing skills by just trying to write regularly. I'm not sure yet if it has improwed. I haven't looked back to what I have been writing. But getting my thoughts out in a written form feels easier already.

Biggest gain with this exercise is not the writing but the thought process and the bigger idea of change and doing. If I can do this I can do anything. It has put me thinking. Realizing the ideas, making actual use of them.

I almost did not manage to write today. Staying overnight at friends place. Hectic morning, bad network, low battery, no quiet place or moment. All the excuses.

But I let it go. Did not stress in the morning because of that. I knew I'll have time in the evening. Another chance to write when I get home.

If you are trying to keep up a habit and it's part of your daily routine when you can't do it as a part of the routine you can still do it later. No point of not doing it outside the routine if needed.

It's good to have a backup plan. Some other moment when you can catch up if you have missed something.

This was also another good indicator how well I have picked up this habit. I almost couldn't wait to get writing. I couldn't even imagine breaking the streak. As soon as I got back home I quicky unpacked and started writing.

I recently read the book Four seconds by Peter Bregman. It's a book about changing your life with simple four second rule: whenever you encounter a situation where you might act impulsively, just take a deep breath before you do. This will already calm you down and give you a moment to think rationally.

Changing your whole life might be a bit too optimistic unless you are acting only impulsively. But it's still a good rule. It can ave you from many situations that end up badly.

I rarely act impulsively. I'm more loke the opposite. I think too much how to react. But here are some situations that I have recognized where I might act badly. I can for example be a sore loser. I don't take it lightly and might explode if I lose.

During the weekend I had good opportunities to test this rule out. We were over at a friend playing. I didn't win every game (not even close). So whenever I lost I took a deep breath, accepted my loss and thanked for the game. Simple as that. No explosions, everybody had fun.

Our mind can change really fast. If we just give it that time we can get out our second thoughts. The better ones not dictated by instincts and emotions. So take a deep breath before you react.

I'm confident I have made this writing thing into a habit. Maybe it's time to start thinking another one. Something physical this time could do me good. I could lose some weight.

Exercising takes time. You need to have a schedule. You need to go to gym, to the track... I don't think I could do that kind of thing every day. At least not yet. I need something that I can easily do daily. Something that can be done anywhere. It should be easy to add to my daily routines.

I have known about the 7 minute workout for a while but never actually tried it. It sounds interesting, short but still effective. I already downloaded an app for it, the official one, I think. It has instructions for the exercises, a training log and you can also set different training levels. So it should be good for the start but can also scale nicely up when I'll get more fit.

I think I need to test it for a couple more days to get the feel of it and then try to find a spot for it in my day.

I hope I can pick up this new habit as easily as I did with the writing.

One of the hardest part about writing is keeping up with my thoughts. I have a perfect sentence in my mind. I start writing it, typing as fast as I can. After a few words I need to stop and recall what was I suppose to write. But my mind is already three sentences ahead.

Messy handwriting is said to be a sign of high intelligence because geniuses don't have ti e to concentrate on good handwriting. They need to get thoughts out as fast as possible. But what use are those thoughts if nobody can read them? I appriciate more those who can actually control their mind, slow down and pay attention to the output.

It's the limitation of human communication. There is so much more in our thoughts than we can express with mere words. If there is plenty of time we can keep describing them with more detail, with more words. But often people don't have time to listen, or stamina to read long explanations.

It's the writer, the storyteller that needs to take the time. Slow down and think about the output instead of trying to capture the flow of consciousness. There is the famous quote attributed to many legendary writers: ”If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”