I have never done anything 21 days in a row (Also it is probably a myth). Weekends always impede my ambitions.
But I did manage to Meditate on complete my 107th day this week over 6 months and this is considerable progress for me in the Habit Building Arena. Also for the record I did do 10 days at a stretch. Once.
If you want to successfully build a new habit, you need 3 things:
- Start Small
- Focus on one Habit at a time
- Don't give up.
Stuff which does not work for me:
- I find it impossible to focus on one habit at a time. (My main reason for not being able to do more than 10 days in a row)
- Accountability. I dislike telling too many people about what I am doing from the start instead of motivating me, I tend to give up. This has happened enough times for me to know this is a trend. But it is supposed to work for most people. So you may want add this as point 4 to the list above.
- Making it into a chore. I love meditating but when I started to focus more on completing X no. of days Vs actually enjoying the experience, it proved to be counter productive. Journey more important than Destination.
Stuff which worked for me:
- Not Giving Up. I have been trying to build this habit for over a year in reality and struggled to find something which really connected with me. Then I found Headspace, one of the best guided meditation apps. Even then I struggled. There is a free beginner course which requires you do complete 10 min everyday for 10 days. Sounds easy? I had to try thrice till in my third attempt I found my rhythm and was able to continue to day 107. So be prepared to fail multiple times before you succeed.
- Starting Small: The App required me to dedicate 10 min for first 10 days. You can start even smaller 2-5min. In my failing a few times I managed to rewire my brain into thinking that sitting still for 10 min is perfectly normal and in fact feels really good.
In order to make amends for my initial mistakes & I plan to re-start from day 1 of the Headspace Course and hopefully blog about it here.
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