Developing habits

Key to achieving my goals are developing useful habits. I determine the direction I want to go in and the goals I want to achieve in my life. Then, I try to develop a habit that will support my achieving it.

That is, if I want to return to playing chamber music, I have to develop a habit of practicing my viola it. You know when you have a habit when some little bell goes off in your head somewhere that you're missing whatever it is you have a habit of doing but you've not been doing.

I developed a habit of stretching every morning after my daily shower. Up, fix coffee, shower and shave, stretch and do my exercises (to shift my weight from around my middle to my chest and shoulders where it's safer to carry it), then go to work. When I don't stretch my legs out, they complain about it.

When I say habit, I don't mean an addiction to alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs. Those are destructive habits. Get rid of those by not doing them for a period of time until not doing them feels more natural than doing them.

In fact, if you are doing something all the time that you think you can't do without, try doing without it for a while. A week or two weeks. Then maybe you don't need that habit.