Start up again

I tend to discourage the idea of change for the sake of change. If you are going to change, do so to improve some aspect of your life. Sure, it is nice to take a trip to a new beach or try a new meal at a restaurant.

But when it comes to self-improvement, I tend to promote the idea that we should look for improvement, or at least the possibility of improvement, whenever we change.

If my work schedule changes, I try to leverage that change to tighten up my morning routine. If I move into a new house, I try to find ways to encourage healthy eating instead of junk food. I don’t have habits in this new home so I can start to build that early instead of having to try and fight ingrained bad habits down the road.

As we traverse life, we will find that when change is pushed upon us, we need to find ways rebuild. Sure, many habits will transfer but not all. These transition points are a key aspect in our journey. They represent a leverage point in the system.

We can use that opportunity to start up positive routines, or we can go through the motions, likely creating bad habits that we will have to tackle later.

But these start up moments represent the easiest way to build a new habit. In essence, by not being active in designing it, we build a bad habit and then try to change it later. This means we create 2 habits instead of one.

If we are designing our life, we see that this change will disrupt our current habits. For most, this disruption is difficult. It doesn’t have to be. It could be the change that prompts improvement overt difficult areas that we have struggled to reign in for years.

Don’t be afraid to start up again. Even though it might feel as though it wipes out all our previous hard work, it doesn’t have to. It could add to the value we created if we become active and search for ways to build habits we want instead of habits that form without our volition.