PYP

Pursue Your Passion

2011: Focus on Habits instead of Resolutions

Hello peeps!

I hope everyone had a relaxing time over the holidays!  Time for a new start, right?  Gonna lose x amount of weight?  Check Facebook less than 5x a day?  Planning to study more, work harder, and reach the same goals you’ve been meaning to reach 5 years ago?  So am I! ;)

In 2011 I have the single minded focus of being the greatest Project Success Support Specialist and High School basketball coach, and being the best basketball shape of my life.  I’ve been truly blessed to be doing things I’m passionate about, and although I’m not where I need to be financially, my payment comes in seeing the players I coach improve tremendously and the students I counsel learning much more about themselves and others that they wouldn’t have learned otherwise.  

Yes, these are vague goals, and I still have yet to come up with my own criteria for what it means to be the “greatest” and what I’m currently doing.  But my main focus right now is changing my HABITS.  I realize that in the marathon of life, you have your ups and your downs.  When you’re up, you’re invincible.  Getting things done seems to be easy.  But when you’re down, even the simplest tasks could be tremendously overwhelming.  That’s when we revert to our old habits that we do almost automatically, like brushing our teeth. As Tony Robbins would say, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” 

When I focus primarily on my goals instead of my habits, I get easily discouraged when things come up that distract me from my goals.  Urgent matters come up from time to time that I need to attend to, and it becomes a downward spiral from there.  I have a setback, I try to get back on course, I have another one, and then I revert back to the old destructive habits that keep me from reaching my goals in the first place.  It is my all-too-familiar “comfort zone.”

Attacking habits means attacking the root of the problem:  

Why am I not on track to becoming the greatest Project Success Support Specialist ever to have lived?  

Because I don’t consistently plan out my weekly schedule days in advance.

Why don’t I plan out my weekly schedule days in advance?

Because I’m not consistently going to the library, where I am the most productive with my time.  

Why am I not consistently going to the library?

Because there are many times where I oversleep, which not only shortens the length of time I would have at the library, but also makes me groggy and less energetic throughout the day.


And there you have it.  My habit of oversleeping is getting in the way of becoming the greatest Support Specialist ever.  Many times I would beat myself up for not going to the library enough, when in fact I should zone in on the cause of the inconsistency which is my love of “sleeping in.” =P

In an all out effort to foster habits I feel will help me reach my goals, I have all the habits I want to ingrain in my head on my Droid Incredible smartphone under an excellent application called “Habit Streak.”  This app tracks my habits daily and asks me if I followed through on them; this is my own special way of holding myself accountable for developing good habits and maintaining a record of just how much I follow up.  It also keeps me focused daily on the habits I want to build.  Right now I’m on a 4 day streak of waking up by 9am at the latest each day, and 12 for 16 since I started!  Yessir! =P

Maintaining a consistent, normal sleep schedule has been the bane of my existence for many years now, and has kept me from being as productive as I want to be.  I know there will be times during this journey where I will falter, but it’s all about picking myself back up and starting a new streak.  Personal development coaches say that in order to make a habit stick you must maintain the habit for at least 30-40 days in a row!  (Number varies depending on who you ask)  

I hope that my gameplan for changing my habits, with this being on the top of my list, will help me ultimately change the way I live, and so far it’s doing just that.  I’m much more organized, and I am able to complete actions off my to-do list much more easily and follow through with all that I’ve planned to do for the day.  I’m a streaky person by nature, so once I get momentum the beginning of the day then there’s no turning back.

Changing my habits also helps me accomplish goals that aren’t necessarily on my priority list like blogging.  This is partly due to my perfectionism, but often times I don’t “find time” to write because I am too busy worrying about catching up with my work duties that I have planned on doing several days back.

So as you join the thousands of other people hitting up the fitness center vowing to get in the best shape of their lives these first two months or whatever goal you have for yourself, think about what habits you would need to make instinctual to maintain your progress towards that goal all the way up until 2012.  Remember that “to err is human,”  and that you’ll inevitably make mistakes and lose focus along the way.  When this happens, pick yourself back up and start a new streak.

By focusing on changing my habits, I’m effectively focusing on changing my life.  I’ll keep you posted if it does. =)

PYP y’all.

  1. rizzapyp posted this