Welcome back to your favorite Friday activity, reading my random thoughts throughout the week. I have updated the title to “5 Minute Friday” rather than “3 Minute Friday”. First, because it will allow me to explain more and secondly, because I think it sounds better as a title.
I hope everyone’s week went well. Let’s jump right into it.
New Beginnings
If you saw my October Review, you’ll know that I have been struggling recently with my habits, but with yesterday being November 1st, it was the perfect time to start again.
This got me thinking, why is it easier to start a new habit (or stop a bad habit) on the first of the month?
Well, it is not limited to the first of the month. It could be a new year, a new week, or a new day. Each of these have a similar effect on the way our brains perceive starting or stopping a habit.
“The Fresh Start Effect”, coined by Hengchen Dai and colleagues, describes exactly this phenomenon. Their research showed that these temporal landmarks such as the start of a new year, academic semester, or month, creating “mental accounting periods”.
These “mental accounting periods” help to create a boundary between the present and the past, and help to see a broader life view.
So, when beginning a new habit, start on a temporal landmark to increase your chances of success.
Career Paths
How does one decided what career path they will follow? How can you be sure it is the right one? If I commit to something now does that mean I cannot change it later?
These questions and more have been running through my mind recently.
I currently work in forestry and I really enjoy it, but is it what I want to do for another 40 years?
There are a lot of things I think I would enjoy, like teaching or doing research. Do I have to limit myself?
My big concern is how I can have a successful career while also doing long distance hiking and taking 2-6 months off at a time.
Habits
I’ve talked before about creating good habits and breaking bad habits, but I think with my recent behaviors, now is a good time for a reminder.
Over the last month my good habits have started to slip and the bad habits have come creeping back in. I’ve noticed that a large part of this is due to me relying too heavily on discipline.
I need to create an environment that promotes the success of my good habits and makes it more difficult to fall back into bad ones.
My routine of mediation and yoga in the mornings has start to fail now that it is too cold to do them outside. My bad habit of watching YouTube has been gaining a foothold as I spend more time in the living room by the TV.
I have heard it said that creating a habit takes three weeks, while it only takes two days to break it.*
No wonder it is so easy for our bad habits to creep back in.
Here are some steps I am taking to give myself the best shot at success:
- Deleting YouTube and other social media off my phone.
- Setting a password on the apps in the event of me redownloading them.
- Figuring out a time that works well with doing yoga and mediation in the living room without disturbing others.
- Putting my yoga mat in a location easily visible.
- Keeping my book in an easily visible spot (The idea is that I will read rather than watching YouTube).
Hopefully with these steps and keeping in mind why I want to continue doing these habits daily, I can get back on track.
* The actual length of time that it takes to create a habit differs for each person. In a study conducted by Phillippa Lally published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it was shown that the formation of a new habit can take between 18 days and 254 days. On average it takes 66 days, more than two months.
