October 1, 2019 - 18 - "Habits Make Our Lives"

Daily Habit Tracker

     The title of this post is a premise I've been working with and thinking about a lot for the last few years.  And when I say the last few years I really mean, once again, my entire life.  

     I love how the book Bridget Jones' Diary starts with her tracking her alcohol, calorie, and cigarette consumption.  

     I completely relate to this.


     I've adopted the motto:  "What gets measured, gets managed."  (Thank you, Peter Drucker.)  And, Lord knows,  I've come to want to manage a lot of things.

     In the last couple of years I've built Habit Trackers into the pages of my Journals.  (Apparently I capitalize what I love.)  I fully admit that I do love Habit Trackers.  And I have always loved Journals.  (JOURNALS should probably be in all-caps to illustrate my extreme fondness for them.)

     I've gone from tracking one or two habits at a  time to dozens, and have lately settled in at consistently tracking 8 daily habits in the pages of my journal.   Dozens were way too many.  Eight is probably even too many.  But I can keep up with these, and it does keep me on my toes.

     Right now I'm tracking my habits around:
          -Spiritual Reading (A Course in Miracles)
          -Writing
          -Exercise
          -Meditation
          -Nutrition Mini-habits (One fresh vegetable, one fresh fruit, and one hydration                                  powder per day
          -Journal check-in
         -Spanish lessons (these are mostly not happening.  Which is ironic since I need them  
                more than ever with the Mexico house reno. project, but I don't have the  
                bandwidth to do more than listen to Audible book lessons when I'm driving.  But it 
                is a deep desire, so I keep it on my list.) 
         -Golf - My exercise habit is so engrained these days, I thought I'd take on a new 
                  physical challenge.

Weekly Writing Tracker

     I also track what I eat and drink but I use apps to simplify this so don't have a physical record of this.

     I try to streamline my systems so that habit tracking itself doesn't take over my life.  But I find the effort well worth it.  I notice that when these numbers are where I want them to be, (i.e. they reflect my goals) my life tends to be going very well.  

     Good habits really do make for a good life.  And bad ones...well, they make it not-so-good.

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"Bad habits are easy to form, but hard to live with.  

Good habits are hard to form, but easy                                to live with."                                                                                                        -Brian Tracy

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   "You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily.  The secret of your success is found in your daily routine."

-John C. Maxwell

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"Good habits are worth being fanatical about."

-John Irving

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