Don’t Make It A Habit!

Greetings!

Ever wonder what your life would look like if you set up goals and actively worked towards making it a reality? Then stayed tuned to figure out how you can take what I learned in class and use it in your life also!

We all know how detrimental bad habits can be to our lives. One example that comes to mind is eating late at night / just before bed. Pair that with not living an active lifestyle and you find yourself in a situation that leads to potential weight gain. This is something that I would recommend you to not make a habit of.

This leads me to sharing with you something that I have been discussing in my Professional Development class. We talked about Habits this week in class, but first I want to pose a few questions to you: 

– What is a habit?
– Why do we have habits?
– How do we form new habits and/or quit old ones?

Habits are defined as this: “a usual way of behaving : something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way” (according to Merriam-Webster).

We have habits because a lot of times it is a learned behavior. It was modeled to us or it was something that we picked up along the way. Or, perhaps a conscience effort was made to form a particular habit and it has stuck.

Forming new habits and/or quitting old ones are difficult. More times than not it will require some self-discipline and self-control. One way to make sure you are working on forming this habit (or breaking a habit) is to keep track of your progress through the use of Visual Management.

My first assignment was to come up with a habit that I wanted to implement in my life AND create a visual management tool to hold myself accountable. So, I know you are dying to know what my new habit is and how I am keeping track of it. Well, I decided last year (Jan 2015) that I wanted to renew my mind (Romans 12:2, life verse, first tattoo). So, I realized that a practical way to do that is to think new thoughts/read Truths aloud. Something I have struggled with for most of my life is believing LIES about myself, and so I want to combat those lies with TRUTH. 

Habit: Read at least 10 truths about myself outloud everyday.
Tool: Place a checkmark on my calendar once I do it that day.

Part of my struggle is believing the TRUTHS about myself. I know them in my head, but making my heart believe them is a whole other battle. It is getting easier the more I allow the walls down around my heart and embrace Abba’s love personally. My heart is warming up and isn’t so resistent to the truth anymore. And if I am honest, it is still a struggle somedays….

BUT, there is hope! To reach your goals, simply form new habits and set up an accountability tracker. Should you choose to form a new habit for yourself, then I would love to hear about it and keep up with you to hold you accountable if you’d like.

Another awesome part of my training down at the CGA is a class called “Identity”. It is stirring a lot of things up, but I’ll save that story for another blog. If you don’t want to wait for the blog / have questions, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to leave me a comment or send me a message and we can set up a time to chat. 😉

Also, I just wanted to give you a quick update of what I have been up to this week. It has been an extremely busy one down here at the CGA in GA.
Monday: All Staff Worship, Community Time which included a drive around town Scavenger Hunt, and Spiritual Formation Class, Going away party for someone at AIM (evening).
Tuesday: Worship Track – Intro to Creativity (morning), and Apprenticeship (afternoon), CGA dinner at a staff person’s house (evening).
Wednesday: Professional Development & Identity Classes (morning), lunch with my Discipler, and Apprenticeship (afternoon), House dinner (evening).
Thursday: Worship Track – Art Forms (morning), and Apprenticeship (afternoon), finally got some time to relax and just be.
Friday: Worship Track (morning), and Apprenticeship (afternoon).

Fundraising update: I am about $200 shy of my next deadline which is the end of this month, February 28th. Thank you so much for prayerfully considering coming along on this journey with me through your coveted prayers and financial generosity, both are greatly appreciated!

Keep Lookin’ Up,
Misha