Turning Habits into Edifying Lifestyles

Ahh, it's the new year which seems to always bring a newfound motivation to be a better self. There's this feeling in the air around this time of the year of optimism and "ready to take on the world" that allows people to reflect on what they want to improve on in themselves.

It made me wonder what things I wanted to improve on myself this year. I started to think back to the new year's resolutions I made last year and I can't even remember if I made one. I knew that if I made a list again, I'm just going to do the same thing again, forget after a couple of months. So I decided to start new habits and hope to keep them. Healthier and self-improving habits that will edify me in some manner.

Here are some of the new habits I added to my life:

1. Eat healthier and work out more My goal is to lose some weight and wear some cute clothes that don't fit anymore. Oh and not to run out of breath by the time I get to the top of any staircase. Been cutting on calories and going to the gym every other day.
2. Find more time for myself. In teaching, I find myself getting swallowed by the expectations of my students and my school. I need to find a balance and learn to say no to the things that are out of my job description if it takes away more "me" time. 
3. Starting each day with spiritual guidance. I have a personal relationship with God and I want to make a daily thing to communicate with him. He's the most important relationship in my life and I want my life to reflect that. 
4. Read more. I stopped reading for fun since college ended. I blame my college classes for sucking the fun out of reading but in all honesty I felt that my brain is in constant overdrive and reading didn't seem "fun" anymore. Now I have an entire bookshelf that I have collected but not read so I want to fall in love with reading again and make it a hobby of mine. 
5. Finding something new to learn. I like discovering new things. I go on pinterest often pinning new ideas for clothes, food, teaching, room decoration, or DIYs. I want to start working on new projects and this blog was dedicated to that journey. 

 I've honestly started this list back in December when I was reflecting on my life. I have successfully tried all of these new habits (except for reading because I spent my break reading a textbook for work). Studies show that it takes about 21 consistent days to make something a habit. So my goal is to make all five of these things a habit by the end of the year so that it can enrich me for the rest of my life.

So what are your goals/resolutions that you want to start forming into habits? Maybe I named a few that you could relate to, if so let's start on this journey together! Here are some tips that I found to be helpful in starting a new habit in my life:

1.  Accountability. Have someone check up on you to make sure that you're following through with your new habits/goals. My job is having a "biggest loser" contest which requires contestants to have a weekly weigh-in. Competitions are great motivators and it acts as accountability as well. Find a friend or a co-worker that you want to work on a goal together.
2. Be okay with imperfection. I know for myself, the biggest reason why my new year's resolutions never made it to February was because I held ridiculous expectations for myself. I told myself that my life will make a 180 turn from the moment it turned from December 31st to January 1st. Now I realized that my perfectionist attitude caused myself to think I failed when I really didn't. Go easy on yourself, realize that even trying made you one step closer to your goal. 
3. Find balance. I think one of our biggest faults as human beings is our tendency to go to such extremes. Sometimes extremes makes us into more dedicated and talented people but other times it just causes us to be too lopsided or distracted. I know for me last year, I binged-watched way too much TV which caused me to lose time on almost anything else. Now that I have cut back some, I have more time to do a variety of things which makes me feel more accomplish than ever before. 

A beautiful view during my evening jog. Change things up and go somewhere new! It'll be a motivator and an adventure!

I challenge you to convert some of your goals into habits that you want to adopt into your lifestyle. Track it and consistently do your goal for 21 days and hopefully it will come naturally to you! I'm using this "new year" motivation and optimism to drive me to complete these goals and I hope that you find yourself feeling more accomplished by the end.