Leveling Up: Getting into a routine, creating consistency, and feeling accomplished.
One of my favorite books is ‘Atomic Habits’ written by James Clear. This book is a powerful tool when learning, creating, implementing, and managing habits (both new and old) that are in your life and make up the contents of your day. I love learning about ways to optimize your time, energy, and creating a life that you trust and love. Habits are inevitable and this book offers incredible insight on how to identify current habits, omit habits you no longer want, and provides methods on how to implement habits that lead you down the road to your goals.
Needless to say, I love growing. I love evolving. Most of all, I love the continual process of becoming the best version of myself. I am always looking for new ways to optimize my fullest capacity spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I love adding new habits and challenging myself to pick up habits that I want to start that would lead me to my best, most positive, healthiest self.
A few weeks ago I began implementing the habit of learning (either in the form of listening or reading) for an hour every day. This new goal has been so much fun to start and continue. Undoubtedly, I was inspired by ‘Atomic Habits’ to begin using my time wiser and try out the techniques offered in the book to start new habits and discard old ones. So, I started with listening on Spotify to the audio book version of ‘Atomic Habits’. I finished the book and now have listened 5-6 podcasts. It is so much fun! When creating this goal, I began by writing it down using the “SMART goal” technique:
- S = Specific: “I will listen/read/learn for an hour every day.”
- M = Measurable: Keep a daily and weekly log of time spent toward learning
- A = Attainable: Driving to and from work = 30 minutes. Walking to and from class = 30 minutes.
- R = Realistic: Yes ,this is realistic because I have time scheduled in my day for it.
- T = Timely: Yes, this is timely and uses time wiser because I would normally I would listen to music so I have time for this new habit.
From here, I began discovering more of what will lead me toward my goals and dreams, and removing things that pull me away from my goals and dreams.
I make my bed every morning and have been ever since I was about 17. It truly does start your day off with a win and you know that you are capable of creating habits. Oh, it also makes your room look really pretty.
The reason I wanted to make this blog post was because over the past couple of months I have been doing some serious growth. I ended my 20 year gymnastics career, started my Master’s program, became a graduate assistant, began living alone, and well…adulting. Adulting is weird and hard, but it is also exciting and invigorating.
After last week, as I was leading into this week I knew I wanted to change a few things in my life. I wanted to implement habits that prioritize God, my health, my mind, and my body. I know this might sound like a lot but it started with these thoughts:
- “God is my lifeline, I want to start every day being connected to Him and diving into the Word.”
- “I want to find a way to move every day. Whether that be strength workouts, walks, running, yoga, etc.”
- “I want to eat healthier. I don’t want to not eat or just eat anything that’s in my house that hasn’t gone bad. I want to meal prep – because I know I don’t have time to make food in the week which has been my issue.”
- “I want to romanticize my life and take off the pressure to succeed.”
- “I want to be kinder to myself and speak to myself how the Lord would speak to me which is loving and kind.”
This is kind of what my thoughts started as. The common theme being “health”. I wanted to implement activities, language, and intentionality toward the things that would inspire and influence my healthiest, happiest self. From here I began creating my smart goals, that way I can create goals, implement goals, and repeat goals.
Goal 1:
S – “Intentional time spent with God in the mornings”
M – I have a daily devotional that goes day by day so it is easy to track what day I am on.
A – Absolutely attainable because I will be getting up early to workout, so I will schedule it in my morning routine.
R – Of courseeeee… not starting my day without it!
T – Best time of the day.
Goal 2:
S – “Eat healtier”
M – Finding healthy recipes to follow.
A – Go to grocery store and get ingredients to make the decided recipes then meal prep for the week every Sunday – Write down meals for the week and organize the containers of prepped food.
R – Yes, this is realistic because if I know that I don’t have time during the week to make or get food then I can plan for Sundays to be my meal prep day.
T – It took me about 5 hours from going into the grocery store to the time I shut my refrigerator with all the meals prepped. This time will reduce in the future when I become more acclimated to the routine, recipes, and process.
Goal 3:
S – “Move more”
M – Writing down projected workouts for each day of the week – I don’t want to be tied down to doing a specific workout each day so I will also write down after my workout what I did. Creating a habit tracker to check off when I have completed my “movement of the day”.
A – Absolutely attainable – I often worry I won’t get enough rest, however, I am planning to be in bed and asleep NO LATER than 10:30pm every night and wake up at 6am every morning. This will create a byproduct of a healthy sleep schedule.
R – This is realistic because I will get up at 6am, make my bed, get dressed, go to the gym.
T – Typically most of my workouts take about an hour.
These three goals have various similar underlying themes: intentionality, consistency, and pre-planning/scheduling. I love goals that teach me life skills including learning how to manage my time, being intentional with my activities, and navigating priorities. These goals are a priority for me therefore my decisions will match my goals. For instance: If I stay up watching TV until midnight, then I will only get 6 hours of sleep then it will be hard to wake up in the morning and I will want to just press snooze and my routine will be thrown off. I appreciate these routines that help me navigate the direction I want my life to go in. Decisions often follow priorities.
That leads me here. Last night I spent 5 hours meal prepping, creating meals, and sectioning them off for each day of the week. I prioritized vegetables and produce packed recipes, so I know my meals are packed with nutrients. From there, I went to bed at 10:30 after cleaning my room. I woke up this morning around 6:10am then made my bed, got dressed, washed my face, and headed out the door at 6:30am to workout. I got in a good workout and got back to my apartment 7:45am. I then, cooked eggs and had strawberries for breakfast while reading my Bible. Then I made my coffee and read my devotional. I got ready for work and headed out the door. All before 10am I felt like I had conquered the world. The best part is I can repeat it. I scheduled out time each day to create this routine that encourages a healthy lifestyle. This feeling of accomplishment stems from the foundation that you can only control what you can control. You control the life you want to live to an extent. If you want to be healthier: add healthier foods, activities, or decisions into your life. If you want to grow your business write down smart goals then tackle them one step of the time with what you can control. Creating smart goals that are congruent to your priorities will help you navigate the life you want to live and guide your decisions to align with these priorities, which are both in your control.
I deeply apologize for how long that was, but I believe in you, I believe you can follow your dreams, and reach your goals. I hope these examples will inspire you to take the first step on a habit or action you may be wanting to add in your own life. You can do it. I believe in you. Now go be your best self!
Xoxo,
Mo
