Habit Becomes a Challenge When It’s Time Bound
By: Shaunta Grimes
Tags: Ninjabyob, Habit, Writing, Creativity, Productivity

When I’m coaching a writer, I try to be mindful of the fact that for some people, the concept of making a big goal can be — fraught.

Some people have anxiety that looks like worrying about the other shoe falling. If something good happens, they are on edge waiting for something bad to balance it.

Some people struggle with feelings of failure if they fall anywhere short of perfect completion of a goal.

Some people are derailed by disappointment.

And guess what. That’s okay. I’m not here to convince you to dream outside your comfort zone. But I am here to share my philosophy with you. Do with it what works for you.

Here goes.

Dreaming is Worthwhile in its Own Right

There’s real value in the act of getting your hopes up. I personally do it every chance I can. It might be the only good thing that will come out of trying something new.

Why would I give that up?

My actually philosophy is this: I get my hopes up as often as possible, and work toward those goals one little step at a time.

I don’t always get where I hoped I would. In fact, let’s face it, usually I don’t. For many reasons. Sometimes I get started and change directions. Sometimes I just can’t make it happen the way I want it to. Sometimes life gets in the way.

But if I take little steps — if I direct my daily habit — toward my goal, I get somewhere.

I started out meaning to be a romance writer. I write children’s books.

I started out meaning to make my living writing novels. I wouldn’t give up teaching for anything.

There are so many unknowns in this business. One of the few things you can control is how much enjoyment you let yourself take from getting your hopes up.

Start Big Picture and Go Small

Here’s how I think about habits.

You start with a BIG idea.

It can be something you want to start, like: I want to write a novel. I want to finish an Ironman. I want to learn to play the guitar.

It can be something you want to stop, like: I want to stop smoking. I want to stop eating processed foods. I want to stop leaving my kitchen a mess after dinner.

The process is the same. You have this lovely, big idea — and then you find the smallest component of it. In the samples above, those components might be:

Writing for ten minutes

Exercising for ten minutes

Practicing for ten minutes

Not smoking a cigarette before noon every day

Not eating processed foods for one meal

Making sure the dishwasher is empty before dinner every night

On their own, there’s nothing very exciting about any of those. Do them once and — yeah, nothing much. But do them over and over and over again? Do that and they become habits that take on a life of their own.

Habit Becomes a Challenge When it’s Time Bound

I know the conventional wisdom says that it takes three weeks. I’ve found that for me it’s more like three months. If I do something every day for three months, I have time to see real progress and it becomes just part of my life.

My favorite way to do this is something I call a 10X100 (or ten by one hundred.)

I pick a thing and do it for ten minutes a day for 100 days. Keeping a log helps with accountability. Blogging about it can be super helpful, if you’re into that kind of thing. Or just write about it on social media, if you want some outside pressure to meet your goal.

Go ahead and get your hopes up about where this might lead. But be open to the idea that your challenge might take you somewhere on day 100 that you can’t even imagine on day 1.

How Will You Challenge Yourself?

So, think about your big picture. What do you want to get your hopes up about. Then choose a little bitty habit that represents the tiniest little component of that goal.

Then do it for 100 days. Don’t worry about where it will lead. Just do it today, then do it tomorrow, and so on. See what happens.

When the habit is set, do it again.