...and build momentum.
In one of my first posts, I wrote about my challenge to form a habit. The undertaking I chose was to meditate in the morning each day. Here I am on the 49th day in a row that I've been able to keep the daily meditation going.
How did I get to this point?
One thing that I neglected to write about in that post on habits was what my strategy to meet this challenge consisted of. Let me fix that. My solution is going to seem simple, I think, to many of you - but it's what I discovered and what I've found to work on this task.
Here's what I did:
1 - determine the challenge
2 - break it down
3 - create a plan of action
4 - take action on that plan
Determine the challenge. Determine the challenge that stands before you. Define the exact positive habit that you would like to form. I decided that I wanted to meditate each day for 20 minutes. Using the habit forming research as I touched on in the forming habits blog post as a guideline, I would continue this meditation for 66 days. I also wanted to see if I could even form a habit at all. By pairing the two goals I wanted to achieve something that I felt would help out in managing some of my ADHD symptoms. The meditation would allow me to maintain focus longer and the habit forming would become a tool that I could use to activate other skills that have been hindered by ADHD.
Break it down. Take the challenge that you have defined in detail and break it down into smaller steps. Design this break down in such a way that there is a reasonable acceleration from a little step to the max of the positive habit you want to form. I defined a goal of meditating each day for 20 min. I would do this for 66 days. To make sure I met the 66 day mark, I started at a smaller amount of minutes. Over the first month I went from 3 to 5 minutes and then from 5 to 10 minutes and finally from 10 to 20 minutes.
Create a plan of action. Create a plan of action that includes your defined challenge and the smaller steps you will take to make it work. Here is where I took everything I wanted and specified the 'how' of meeting the challenge. I made an appointment for myself to meditate each day for 20 minutes at 9 am. As a reminder, I downloaded an app on my phone (Alarm Clock Extreme) and set it for that time. I use the timer on the app so that I can meditate without having to look at the clock. Once the meditation is completed I go to my calender and physically mark and 'X' to confirm. I have the calender set up already, noted to show the acceleration from day one at 3 minutes to the max of 20 minutes which happened around day 30.
Take action on that plan. Take action on that plan that you created. Even if you can't do the actual habit at the moment - at least take immediate action to set things up that you defined in the plan. What I did was download the app and set up the calender. I came up with the concept for my positive habit in the evening. Even though it was over 12 hours until my 9 am start, by taking action right away and setting up all the little details, I assured myself that I was serious and I had everything in place to follow through with the positive habit forming.
It's worked so far!
