Forming New Habits

In this season of transition, I've been working on my habits. I think I mentioned that in my last blog, but even if I did this one will have much more detail on the kinds of habits I'm working on.

First, I was trying to build habits without any sort of tracking or accountability. I found myself struggling to stay motivated and frustrated when I "skipped days". I mean, life happens and we skip doing the things we want to do, but when it keeps happening it's frustrating and disappointing. So I decided I needed to find a way to improve my tracking and accountability.

My sister recently started (restarted?) using a bullet journal. Her reasons and habits are a bit different than mine, but watching her work on her bullet journal last week reminded me of when I used to bullet journal over a year ago. I wasn't good at the habit then, and I'd created a LOT of work for myself every day in the way I was using it. I felt frustrated with the process and knew I needed to change HOW I used the bullet journal if I wanted it to work.

I took myself on an "idea shopping trip" on Pinterest. I searched for bullet journal ideas, and pinned a few. I even created a new board to make my bullet journal ideas easier to find. I also found a few pins I'd saved last year and moved them to the new board. Pretty quickly, I found a few ideas I really loved. I decided to jump in with those and adapt my bullet journal as I go.

So, I started with a calendar and a habit tracker. I wanted to have the calendar in my bullet journal mostly for extra reference when I'm using my bullet journal. (I REALLY want to use an abbreviation, but we all know that "BJ" doesn't mean bullet journal...am I right? 😂) I also wanted a habit tracker so I can "check off" the days I accomplish the things I want as regular habits. It's a variety of things, such as how I eat, taking care of myself, taking care of my dog, cleanliness, and a few hobbies I want to incorporate more often.

Below are a couple pictures of the calendar and habit tracker.

You may notice that one of the habits I'm tracking is this blog. I really want to be a more active blogger, I just haven't done well at it. I'm working on it. Hopefully my content isn't too boring. I'm really doing it for me, though...so you can deal or stop reading. 😂

After I created those two pages, I realized that one of the habits I included (affirmations) was something I REALLY needed to have some more accountability with as well. I also realized that writing things down is a really good way to help yourself learn or remember, so I decided it would be good to write down my affirmations. Another thing I knew was that by posting the affirmations around my house, I would be reminded of them throughout the day. So my first thought was to write them on post its and then stick 'em places I'd see. I realized, though, that I wouldn't be able to remember which affirmations were from which day without another tracking system.

So, my daily affirmations portion of the bullet journal was "born". See photos below.
    

The biggest reason I'm doing these affirmations is because they are part of my therapy "homework". That said, I think it's a really good practice to recognize things within myself and call them out. I also think that by reminding myself of my positive qualities and strengths throughout the day, I can more easily "summon" up those qualities when I need them.

Yesterday (photo on the left), I was feeling unsure of how this practice would go, and a little hesitant to use affirmations that didn't feel quite like they "fit". I think I played it a little cautious, but the affirmations I chose were good ones. Today (photo on the right), I've already done some things that are responsible and good things for myself, so those were obvious ones. Another one I needed to remember today is that I'm safe. I can't really explain why (not because I'm unwilling, I just don't know how to put it in words), but I just needed that reminder today.

I plan to add new "sections" to my bullet journal as I go. I have a few ideas I'm toying with, but I am not yet ready to commit. We'll see how this morphs over time.

As for the habits, I have some good things going already and some areas I really need to "step up". You may have noticed a few habits that are blank. Some of those aren't truly intended to be daily habits, but I want to track how often I do them. Others really should be daily, and I'm just dropping the ball on them at this point. I think, though, that tracking them will help me be more honest with myself and allow me to analyze why I have/haven't been doing certain things.

One of the other habits I'm working to build is meditation. I called it meditation because it's the general concept of what I'm going for. I know some Christians don't like that word, but "quiet time" isn't exactly what I want this time to be. I'm working on centering myself and calming myself, as well as bring more in tune with my body. I DO also want to use this as prayer time or just sitting in silence...but that's not the sole focus of my meditation time. I DON'T want to use this as a time to read devotionals or scripture. That seems counter to the point of meditation. That can be something I do in addition to meditation at a separate (possibly adjacent) time.

I don't want to hash out each individual habit. I am, however, curious what you think. Are there habits I should add? Are there habits you're working to incorporate into your life? Do you have ideas for how I can improve my bullet journal? Do you use a bullet journal or another method of tracking/accountability? Tell me what you're up to in these areas! I love new ideas and I love to hear from friends what's working for them.

Oh, by the way...I've been posting my affirmations to my instagram account as a means of accountability. I probably won't do this every time I do affirmations, but if you want to follow and see updates on that feel free to check my account out. It's @gracezsuficient. ;)