Breaking Bad (Habits)

Focus on what you can do

We are not in a game of Katamari Damacy. Oh, dated reference? Eh. Play some Katamari!

There’s a million and one posts about discipline, about stoicism, about how many weeks you have in your life to use. All of these can be their own rabbit hole on Youtube.

I recently watched this TED Talk which was basically about how mindfulness can help break some bad habits. I decided to do a live illustration of it since I’m trying to practice this so that someday I can potentially do this for a living.

Hey, anything is possible in this day and age!

Live illustration of a TED talk. Done by Adrienne Price

Here’s the timelapse of it in case you want to watch.

I’ve tried various ways to improve myself. I’m not perfect, and neither are you. Still, if you’re struggling with improving your habits, these have worked for me.

Here’s just one or two ideas on how to improve yourself…

Tell yourself what kind of person you are.

I am a person who eats healthily.

I am a person who cares about my body.

I am a creative person.

I am a hydrated person.

Hydrate! Available as a sticker

I am a person who meditates every day.

I am a person who takes a daily walk.

I am a problem solver.

I am self-reliant.

I am a generous person.

I am a person who has enough.

I am blessed with perfect abundance.

I am a person with too many cats already.

I am a person who will not lose their Duolingo streak. More than 1000 days, baby!

I am a person who will not eat a whole bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos in one sitting.

I am a person who gets things done.

👋 Leave me a comment with a problem you have and I’ll try to solve it.

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Two Minute Rule

Like Nike says, just do it. If you need to do something like tidy up around the living room, just do it. It won’t take you that long.

Putting this into practice for me means boiling some water for tea and seeing what I can get done while that is happening. Bonus - I get to drink tea as a reward when I’m done! Silly example but it really does help me out.

Make things easy for you

In the Atomic Habits book, Mr. James Clear says to combine your good habits that aren’t fun (like doing dishes) with something you do like (watching reality TV). He says you have control over your habits so work on those and you can achieve beyond your wildest imagination*.

*It is unClear he said that last part. But you get it, right?

In general, if you want to do more of something, make it easy to access.

If you want to stop doing something, make it harder to access.

Other bad habits, perhaps, could be sleeping past your alarm or playing too many video games.

To be fair, you do need more rest and video games are good for your brain so take this with a dump truck worth of salt.

For example -

• If you eat too many chips, simply do not to buy any more. Then, when you want them, they are pretty far out of reach.

• If gaming is interfering with your life, set a timer and only play for that long. You could put parental controls on yourself. You could unplug your game console when you aren’t using it. It would suck but it would be effective! It really comes down to what you want to do.

Bundle things

Put the things that need to go upstairs at the bottom of the stairs so that when you go up next time, you can just grab whatever that is.

If you need to take something to the car or you’re worried you’ll forget to bring something with you, put it by the door so you’ll remember.

Small acts like this really help your future self!

Waking up on time can be difficult. You could go to sleep earlier and see if that helps.

My hack is to set my alarm for 45 minutes before I actually have to wake up. I snooze it a bunch of times and then wake up on time.

Another terrible option is that you could drink more water before bed so that your bladder wakes you up. 🚰

Need to clean your shower more often? Put the cleaning brush in the shower. Or learn a new skill, get a new high paying job, and pay someone to clean it.

Need to stop waiting for 10pm to come so that you can do the New York Times Mini Crossword? Put your phone in another room and get an old fashioned alarm clock. I’m still working on that one.

PS. If you’re enjoying this newsletter, send it out to a friend or enemy!

Oh and by the way, if you do the Mini Crossword on the NYTimes site, add me to your leaderboard.