Thursday, January 3, 2013

Establishing New Habits for the New Year

  • Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies
  • She looketh well to the ways of her household
It's that time of year again, when we all purpose that this year will be the year that we get it all together.  This year will be the year that we lose the weight, eat healthier, exercise, read the Bible through, spend less, earn more, start to do this and finish doing that.  We make resolutions, set goals, purpose in our hearts, make up our minds-whatever you want to call it.

Most of our resolutions start well, or are at least well-intentioned, but at some point it all gets to be too much.  We bite off more than we can chew, or we try to do too many new things at one time, and eventually--we fizzle-, fade-, or just wear out.  We look around and realize that it's been days, maybe even weeks, since we flossed, exercised, had our quiet time, read our Bible, or whatever.

I've come to the conclusion that while I may have lofty goals it all boils down to habits.  Good habits vs. bad habits, poor habits vs. non-existent habits.  Scientists at some point determined that it takes 21 days to create a new habit (and probable much longer to break an old one!) So instead of setting my sights too high and crashing and burning, I've decided to start small this year. And instead of working on breaking my bad habits, I'm going to work on establishing some good ones. 

I have a lot of areas that I need to work on, both spiritual and physical, personal and public; but the one I am using a representative of all of the ways I'm hoping to make some changes, is making my bed. I have to confess, I don't always make my bed.  Oh, I do at times, sometimes even several days in a row.  But I often go weeks that the only day the bed gets really made is the day I change the sheets. Gasp.

 Day 1

So the first habit I'm going public with is this one--to make my bed, every single day.  I started yesterday, and I plan to take a picture every day and post it to A Virtuous Woman's facebook page. (I can take a quick picture with my phone and upload it to facebook in a matter of minutes, but posting it here requires me to leave the house and go some place with high speed internet. Which means I'd have to leave the house, which means I wouldn't be at home, working on my other habits!)

I'll keep you updated here on how I do on this habit, as well as some I'll be tweaking, and some other new ones I'll be adding.

What new habits are you working on this year?

You can read the other parts of this series here:


Until next time...

4 comments:

  1. Hi Charlene! I had to smile when I read your post today. I started a goal of making my bed a couple of months ago. It has really made me feel better. I have osteoarthritis and in the morning I am always stiff and in a lot of pain, so making the bed has helped me physically, it gets me up and moving and stretching. Then at night I have found there is something very comforting in the ritual of pulling back the covers and having a nice fresh bed with tucked sheets to get into. Have a lovely evening ahead! Delisa :)

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    1. I have to agree, it does make me feel better to make the bed--physically and mentally. When the bed is made, it makes the whole room look better; I feel like I've accomplished something visible and discernable; and it does the heart (and body) good to get into the smooth bed at night!

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. It does make me feel better when the bed is made (not that I always make it... but I am trying). The other thing I found makes me feel better is if I keep my kitchen sink empty... that is a big habit I am working on this year. So far so good.

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    Replies
    1. I need to work on keeping the kitchen sink empty, myself. Since my husband is usually the one who cleans up the kitchen after dinner at night, that part isn't really an issue--it's the odd and end glass and snack dish that gets put in there after supper that gets left--then the breakfast things are left, and before you know it--I have to wash dishes and clean the kitchen before I can even start dinner. Then afterwards I think "but I've already washed the dishes today!" Definitely need to work on that one!

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