Well, that didn’t work.  Entering into the new year meant that I reinstalled some good habits to help reach my goals, said goodbye to some old habits that weren’t really serving me well anymore, and replaced those old and bad habits with new one’s that would help me get where I wanted to go.

This method of replacing the old and bad habits works really well since it’s a thousand times harder to just stop doing something than it is to replace the bad habits with something else.  However, in the last few months I have found something interesting along the way, at least as far as I’m concerned.

 I have discovered that if I don’t keep up the good habits that I replaced the bad habits with, I will fall right back into the bad habits!!  What the heck!  I seriously thought it would be harder to fall back than that, however, it makes sense since I was living with the bad habits far longer than the good ones.  

 For instance, I took up journaling every single day, it helps me keep the creative thought flow coming easily and to stay on track in a lot of other areas in my life.  However, if I go a few days without journaling I find that I am not as creative in some ways, not as social, and more likely to slide on other good habits I installed as well.  What a useful, but kind of disturbing discovery! 

 If I slide on diet and eat out more, then I don’t feel as well, so I tend to not exercise as much which leads to not sleeping as well and it’s a real domino effect all the way around.  If I slide on unpacking and organizing, then I slow down in other areas, start finding myself distracted and don’t get near all the things done that I should have.

 I am a real promoter of vision boards, goal setting – both long and short-term, to do lists, and learning to celebrate the accomplishments and milestones along the way, but even people of this same mindset stumble now and then.  There was a time in my life when I would have beat myself up for getting off kilter, but encouragement and inspiration goes so much further than making myself feel guilty or feel like I failed in some way.  We are all human, and all it takes is figuring out where we are right at this moment, making a few minor adjustments and then getting back on track – no guilt required. 

 Cherry Coley ©

Related articles

 http://blog.modernest.com/2012/04/08/vision-boards-intentions-and-walking-on-fire/

http://thinkcoffeemedia.com/2012/04/15/10-tips-for-a-great-life/