Play that old game with me where you take a phrase and change the emphasis on the key word to explore how that changes the meaning. Let’s start with every day HABITS.
Every Day HABITS: Practices, conscious or not, that you do repeatedly. What could those be? Consciously, setting your alarm to rise at a certain time with a plan for working out or accomplishing a task first thing. Or, setting your priorities for the day and planning your calendar to achieve them. Those would be conscious habits. Less conscious habits might be showering, brushing your teeth, grabbing breakfast and getting to work not remembering how you got there – an action or activity so engrained it takes no conscious thought.
EVERY day habits: Day in, day out we can count on you to do these things repeatedly. Perhaps, you drink coffee every day. You stop by Starbucks and say hi to the same baristas whose names you know and maybe see the same folks in line. Or, you clean out your French press and grind your single origin beans in your super cool grinder and pour it into one of 3 favorite cups. Ahhh.
EVERYDAY habit: Habits so routine you don’t even realize they are habits. While you complete them, your brain is free to work on other things. Let’s camp here for a moment: not all of these habits are good ones. Mindlessly grabbing a cookie while you try to rewrite a marketing message that Chat GPT just drafted for you may not be a good habit. (The cookie part). Grabbing your phone and scrolling when you get stuck might not be a good one either.
This week, take a look at one or two habits that are not serving you, and think of a practice to replace them. Don’t grab the phone. Stretch and walk around. Don’t grab the cookie, instead pour a long cool glass of water and drink at least a quarter. We can create habits that serve us better if we pay attention to our patterns.
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