The enforced stop that was the pandemic meant that life inertia was halted for a lot of people, giving space for reviews of all sorts of things that may never have had air in the “normal” run of things. Behaviours changed, stopped, or new ones appeared in accordance with our shared, yet unique, experience, and the subsequent local and world events have hardly engendered stability since. For me, one thing that stopped was writing a blog – this is my first proper attempt creating a habit around it.
My experience with habit change has been patchy, but I realise that the successes I have had, usually started small. A few minutes of exercise will build on itself until it is a nothing and part of your everyday, or 15 seconds with the only the cold tap on will mean your showers soon become a source of invigoration and health benefits when that streches into a couple of minutes after a month of acclimatisation.
Starting with small, achievable steps is something that is backed up by research in the field – the constant in all I have read is consistency, a routine or system that is resistant to shocks (read: hangover proof) and it if feels uncomfortable, that is usually a good sign to lean in to it. For me, it will be a few minutes, first thing in the morning, dedicated to the creative process of publishing a blog every week. Give me a week and we will see if it has worked out…