weekly habit review

This week I set out to continue replacing some of my worst habits with good ones. For some habits, this will be a quick turnover. Others will take a long time.

My last Habit Review was a week ago, in this post. Here's where I last left off:

Praying in the face of Stress/ AnxietyThe intent behind this prayer is to turn to God during times of anxiety or stress which would otherwise cause me to seek shelter in cigarettes, alcohol, lust, etc

Last review, this habit was: Improving.



Short term goal was: "I’ll pray before completing each task on my “To-Do” list, and thank God after I finish it. This week, I’ll consider the top 3 anxiety-causing things on my mind each day, and ask God for peace in them."

Did you accomplish your goal? Last week I was improving, this week started off well and ended poorly. The idea of prayer before doing something on my "to-do" list lasted as long as I was working off a "to-do" list. This was a few days. The last few days I've been hyper-focused on reading a new book, and researching stuff on the internet. I've strayed from a bunch of other habits, as we'll see, which got in the way of developing prayer.

How to stay in the fight this week: I will write my prayers on the bathroom mirror, and at least go over them when I'm brushing in the morning, and flossing at night. Brushing and shaving as a first thing has been consistent, and thus the strength of that habit will bolster this weak oneI will continue to pray about my To-do items, as I intent to start this week with a list.

No Swearing

Last review, this habit was: Improving.

Short term goal was: This week I will leave 15 minutes earlier than I’d need to in order to get to any given appointment. I will use the spare time to drive slowly, breathing deeply and enjoying the breeze.

Did you accomplish your goal? This week was a success in terms of serene driving. My attitude toward other drivers has definitely calmed down. Far fewer cusses are yelled out each day. I haven't been hitting 15 minutes spot on, but the spirit of the habit is being met mostly by choosing to listen to an audiobook or classical music. Being early to stuff is a whole other habit, and a great one, but that isn't the reason I'm leaving 15 minutes early. I did swear more at Florabama when I met up with my buddies and started drinking a little bit. This happened more and more as I drank. I didn't follow my drinking goal that night, but only had 3 small beers anyways before calling it a night.

What will you do to improve next week? Keep breathing deeply, and continue listening to classical or audiobook. I will also plan ahead and leave 10 minutes before necessary to be 5 minutes early to any meeting, in order to allow plenty of time to drive slowly and unwind while enjoying an audiobook in the car. I anticipate some trouble in New Orleans next weekend with my new buddies, and will have to be vigilant not to "fall back" into swearing when I'm drinking heavily with them. SHORT TERM GOALS: Do not swear at all, all week. Think of creative ways to express things without swearing. Stop thinking of swearing as an "ok" thing to do.

Hygiene

Last review, this habit was: Improving

Short term goal was: I need to get back into planning my meals for the week in order to solidify my morning and evening routines.

Did you accomplish your goal? Not at all. I didn't plan one meal. I didn't go shopping for any food besides a 12 pack of Schlitz. This didn't affect my hygiene habits at all though, but is still something I need to get on top of for fitness' sake.

What will you do to improve next week? I plan to continue to strengthen and mold my morning and evening routine. Certain elements therein have been gaining strength, and it's time to add in others. For the morning, I need to focus on saying my prayers. For the evening, I need to work on planning the next day.

Drinking with a Plan

Last review, this habit was: Not improving

Short term goal was: no alone drinking this week.

Did you accomplish your goal? I definitely improved this week. I drank a few beers at Tristan's house, and a few at the Florabama. I did imbibe the last few brews at my desk when I got back on friday night, but ended up hanging out with Brent, my roommate. The part I've been forgetting about is alternating between beer and water. This is key to pacing myself and not drinking anything too fast.

What will you do to improve this week? I'm going to buy a 12 pack and drink 2 beers a night, and focus on drinking water after each beer. This will prepare me for the weekend in New Orleans, when I'll be partying a lot.

Reading Well - Taking Notes, Quotes, and Summarizing What I read

Last review, this habit was: Static

Short term goal was: Create word doc for “The Case…” and also “Three Cups of Tea”. Read 30 pages on average of anything, each day.

Did you accomplish your goal?I can claim moderate success. I've been typing notes on everything I've been reading. This habit is really helping me learn and retain more information more.

What will you do to improve this week? Spend more time reading books outside, or in the living room. I need to get out of the office more, since the computer is such a distraction. It'd be helpful to find a time to read as a part of a routine.

Dedicating Internet Time

Last review, this habit was: NOT improving

Short term goal was: I will renew my efforts to plan time spent, aside from investing and blogging.

Did you accomplish your goal? Not really. I spent a shocking amount of time on the computer this past week. Most of what I'm reading, learning, and writing is on the computer. However, I haven't been keeping a "log" of everything I do on the internet. This is about the same as keeping a financial budget, which I think is unrealistic. The best thing to do is focus on scheduling my day, and sticking to it. If I have a block of free time and feel like watching youtube videos or studying technical analysis, that's OK as long as I get everything else done. This is a scheduling problem.

What will you do to improve this week? I need to work on sticking with my schedule better. This might be able to get done by splitting up my day: the first half is when I do all the stuff I need to on the computer: writing, investing, and watching some youtube videos. The second half will be other stuff like: working out, taking a walk, planning meals, cleaning the house, doing my daily reading.

Sleeping in too late

Last review, this habit was: improving

Short term goal was: I’m going to cut off all work and “To-Dos” at 22:00, and go to bed.

Did you accomplish your goal? This was a big failure. Worked the first few nights, then stopped. Even right now it's 12:10 am. I guess I tried to start one habit by starting another (going to bed early to get up early). I think one is certainly a prerequisite for the other, but perhaps the prerequisite should be the habit I'm trying to build.

What will you do to improve this week? I'm going to focus on getting to bed early as my "habit". The first goal toward this intermediate habit is: eat dinner at or before 1900 every night. Stop eating after that.

Bible Reading / Walking Daily

Last review, this habit was: improving

Short term goal was:  I’ll be doing my walk NLT 2130 on the nights of days I haven’t done one yet.

Did you accomplish your goal? I've spent some time in the bible, but haven't been doing it after workouts and not at 2130, either. This definitely should start to be a part of my routine, and I'm not sure how to get in fitted in the day at a fixed time. I'm going to go easy on myself this week, and take baby steps.

What will you do to improve this week? I will read at least one bible verse per day. Hopefully, I'll do much more than this, but I'd like to see consistency here in the easiest of goals before trying to do something overly ambitious. I need to find out if even this is possible.

Workout Daily

Last review, this habit was: improving

Short term goal was: Get fully back into P90X - Diet, weight recording, pictures, journalling, everything

Did you accomplish your goal? No.. I discussed mindset of habits here. I've been running each day, but not doing P90X. It's time to start that back up.

What will you do to improve this week? Monday - Friday will be full P90X workouts.

Daily Planning

Last review, this habit was: Improving

Short term goal was: Weekend : plan as much as possible for the week. Nightly: Revise, review, and request.

Did you accomplish your goal?Not particularly, but did pretty well. It's improving. The weekend routine has yet to manifest. That will come tomorrow.

What will you do to improve this week?Plan the week on monday. Go grocery shopping. Plan each next day the night before. Stick to the schedule.

Habits and Hammy PT

I've been considering my habit-formation effort in a few ways:

• I will have periods of great success, and then some "corrections" in how well my efforts work. As long as the highs get higher, and then the corresponding lows get higher, I'm doing well overall.
• Mindset really is the key. Example: I have made a habit of doing a pretty serious workout every day with P90x. On days that I'm particularly lazy, I find some "reason" to give myself permission to skip out on what I know I should do. Lately, I haven't been doing P90X, and I run 30 minutes instead. Previously on lazy days, I would just skip it altogether. I'm a a "low" point in this habit, but this low is higher than it used to be. 
• I don't really know the "perfect" number of habits to attempt to develop, but nature does. I shouldn't be disappointed if some effort falls by the wayside, when I'm doing very well with others. This is my mind naturally bearing all the effort it can. Instead of considering those dropped efforts as failures, I can consider them as my body and mind finding equilibrium.

OCF and Habit Review

Just had a great bible study at Mark Juntenen's house down south.

Those meetings always go over time, but i think that's just fine. Yesterday afternoon and into today turned out rocky on the habit-developing front:

• I didn't get a workout in today. 


• I also didn't take a walk or have a quiet time. 


• I stayed up late last night and ended up sleeping in this morning until about 10 am. 


• I didn't plan out today, last night. 


• I haven't been logging my net time. 


• I haven't planned out my meals yet. 


• Didn't have How Hour.

Success has been found in these areas:

• Less swearing, especially while driving. I'm much more serene on the road now.


• Haven't been drinking at all.


• Been taking notes out of Ron Paul book


• Haven't been smoking


• Have been practicing great hygiene.

What's the deal?

Something very important is getting a good diet. I've been on a pretty poor diet since getting back. I need to plan meals, even if it's for just the next one. I'm too lazy to cook chicken breast, and it's going to go bad soon.

Having a good walk and quiet time is linked to getting my workout in. Getting a workout in is linked to getting good sleep and not wasting too much time on the 'net (by logging it, or scheduling it). Staying focused on goals is done by planning the day. The trend here is linked habits, which strengthen one another and act to ensure one another. They are not designed so that if one fails, it leads to others failing--but that seems to be what is happening. 

Tonight I'm getting back to the bible reading and planning the next day (including meals). This is setting myself up for success for tomorrow to be a stellar, kick-ass day overall. I've been flaking out on good, solid How Hours and letting them slide since I've been doing well. I'm going to go back to starting them. A good 45 minutes of reflection is good whether you're setting goals, expressing frustration about life, or addressing one specific challenge.

How Hour

Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, Self-control, Steadfastness, Godliness, Brotherly Affection, Love

The list of qualities above comes from 2 Peter Chapter 1, and really sum up the qualities I want for myself.

After reading that, I recalled the peer-ranking system at the Naval Academy and how we secretly gave each person one word of feedback. Someone might be "Industrious" or "Arrogant". Sometimes I got "abrasive" or "confrontational". I can work on the above qualities and pray for them. Maybe in the future those will be the words that most describe me and my life. 

A review on the week and how things are going with my developing habits and goals:

• Listening to audiobooks or sermons in the car has definitely helped me calm down. Having a verse to look at reminding me to breathe and pray is helpful too. I've started to see a little bit of a change in my attitude and outlook while driving.


• Constant prayer has been improving, but isn't natural and isn't occurring all the time yet. But it is getting better. I am turning to Christ at points of anxiety, temptation, and gloominess.


• Leaving early on purpose has also changed my outlook and attitude while driving.


• Planning the next day: While I don't adhere to the schedule all the time, it helps to review what I have to do, when, and then to try to think up when I can fit other things around those mandatory items. I plan to work-out and have a quiet time, instead of just waking up and going through my day, hoping to find the perfect time to do a workout on a whim. It takes these things out of my head as obligations, and gets them into a schedule. This way I can also focus better on what I'm doing, assured my good habits will be fulfilled in their due time.


• Reading well : I've been enjoying going through "A Foreign Policy of Freedom" and reviewing my notes and the interesting passages therein. Going through key points a second time really helps to ingrain the information and concepts in my mind. This is going well, and I will keep doing it!


• Working out each day has been tough to start, but I'm always glad after it's done.


• I couldn't fall asleep last night! I ended up giving myself some extra sleep this morning (about an hour and a half). I'm not sure whether the cause was working out too late, drinking herbal tea too late, or just having too much on my mind. I was very tired, but couldn't sleep.


• Planning the week: I haven't started this yet. I put down some mandatory events, but haven't done my work-out planning, my meal-planning, or fellowship time. This, I'll take care of today. 

Habit Review

Praying in the face of Stress/ Anxiety

Did you pray this week? Yes. A little bit. I wasn't practicing the presence of God by any means, but did appeal to the Lord in prayer. Especially during quiet times and walks, and time spent praying during my morning/evening ritual. 

How to stay in the fight this week:  "scheduled" prayer is done in morning/evening rituals and by doing my quiet times (ie, prayer read/walks). This habit isn't merely a blending together of those two habits. The intent behind this prayer is to turn to God during times of anxiety or stress which would otherwise cause me to seek shelter in cigarettes, alcohol, lust, etc. Turning to God during this kind of challenge is hard to prepare for, other than trying to turn to God for just about everything else until you get there. I think that'd be a decent thing to eventually be able to do. For now, I'll make this short term goal : Tomorrow (3/23), I'll pray before completing each task on my "To-Do" list, and thank God after I finish it. This week, I'll consider the top 3 anxiety-causing things on my mind each day, and ask God for peace in them. 

No Swearing

Did you avoid swears this week? No. Swearing just pops out while driving, most of the time. I guess that's why it's a BAD HABIT. I would estimate that having a verse reminding me to pray for patience, and a reminder to breathe deeply were helpful. I also was SUCCESSFUL in listening only to delightful classical music or spoken word audio all week, including for the 10.5 HR car ride back from Texas. Awesome! I'm definitely going to keep this up. 

What will you do to improve next week? Continue to pray about it. Keep breathing deeply, and continue listening to classical or audiobook. I could probably also leave earlier so that i'm not in a rush. That would be some angry driving there. SHORT TERM GOALS: This week I will leave 15 minutes earlier than I'd need to in order to get to any given appointment. I will use the spare time to drive slowly, breathing deeply and enjoying the breeze. 

Hygiene

Have you been flossing? Yes. I flossed almost every night this week (didn't one night when I was too drunk). 

How will you keep fighting for this? I'm back in Florida and need to establish my morning/evening routine here even more firmly than in Texas. This morning and lst night were good starts, except without reading from Og or from the bible. Those are two things I definitely want to incorporate into my evening and morning rituals. But the hygiene thing is on it's way to becoming a habit. Just keep doing the ritual. I need to get back into planning my meals for the week. This is on my to-do list. 

Drinking with a Plan

Did you drink with a plan this week? The night I went to Saxon Pub, I definitely drank too much. Downside was that I was hitting on a 40 year old, and spent about $30 on alcohol. yikes! was all in the mindset. Going out alone, I need to be especially careful about drinking well, since I don't have much interaction by which to gauge my intoxication level.

How will you stay in the fight this week: I'm going to take a week off from drinking on my own. In the event that I go out with someone, I'll make my plan and limit before taking a sip. I will also alternate soft and alcoholic drinks. goal: no alone drinking this week. 

Reading Well

Did you read with a purpose this week? I didnt get much reading done this week at all. I did follow through on the short-term goal of starting word documents for stuff I'm reading. I took notes on a few sermons I listened to, and on "The Case Against the Fed", which i listened to 1/4 of on the car trip. Short term goal: Create word doc for "The Case..." and also "Three Cups of Tea". Read 30 pages on average of anything, each day. 

Dedicating Internet Time

Are you dedicating Internet Time? This is the hardest thing to do, besides getting up early. I just don't feel like it's time effective to spend time writing up what i'm going to do on the net. The point of this is to spend time on the Net for a purpose, not purposeless hours of endless browsing. Luckily I haven't been spending tons of time on the net, so the lack of this habit hasn't hurt. But more and more, i'm realizing that the formation of a habit is about the formation of an outlook or mindset about something. What mindset is this habit supposed to bring about ? It's meant to keep me from losing focus of my time and goals. To do everything with a purpose, even if my written purpose is to "unwind & surf". This will be easier with a dedicated notebook now instead of a text log. I will renew my efforts to plan time spent, aside from investing and blogging. Those aren't considered "surfing" to me. 

Sleeping in too late

Have you been getting up early? This is my hardest habit. I think i got up early 2 or 3 times the whole week. Good start, but definitely still a fight. I haven't had a regular sleep schedule, so that hurts. Now that I'm back to boring old pensacola, I think I'll be able to get to bed at a regular time each night (generally). This will help me get up at 7:00 each morning for How Hour

How will you fight this week? Unless something is absolutely essential, I'm going to cut off all work and "To-Dos" at 22:00, and go to bed. This gives me 9 hours time for sleep, of which I'll probably use 8. Giving myself extra time to get ready for bed will possibly help me stay more disciplined. 

Bible Reading / Walking Daily

Have you been reading and walking daily? Not daily. I did this twice out of five days last week. It's easiest and natural to do after a work-out. I've just cleared my mind and am ready for prayer. Any time I work out, I generally do it. So this habit is linked to another one, which may be helpful. 

How will you keep fighting this week? I'm going to do my workouts each day, as they're scheduled and do my prayer and walks after those. If i don't work out for some reason, or something unusual goes on that prevents my walk after a work-out, I'll be doing my walk NLT 2130 on the nights of days I haven't done one yet. This will be the last thing I do before getting ready for bed. 

Workout Daily 

Did you workout daily? I just about did. I think I skipped yesterday (car trip) and maybe one other day this last week. I didn't do P90X each day, but did a run or so. I'm going to keep logging my workouts here. 

How will you stay in the fight? By getting fully back into P90X - Diet, weight recording, pictures, journalling, everything. The more i embrace it as a system, the more momentum is has. 

Daily Planning

Did you plan daily? Just about , but need to tighten things down. I don't always follow the plan exactly, but it's helpful to plan getting up, meals, and key appointments. This keeps my diet, budget, and goals in check. 

How will you keep planning? This will be part of my week-end ritual, and nightly ritual. Weekend : plan as much  as possible for the week. Nightly: Revise, review, and request. 

Investing

This will be covered in it's own post. 

Review: Smoking

Did you smoke? I haven't smoked at all this week, because I haven't really felt the urge to. My life is pretty darn stress-free. I'm not facing any pressing challenges, I'm not anxious. It's really a nice breezy state of mind for me. 

Are you still "trying" to break this habit? Yes. Just because I had a good week doesn't mean I can take my mind away from being "on the lookout" in anticipating temptation. Tomorrow I'm going for a long drive, which is traditionally some of my favorite smoking time. I might be tempted to buy some cigs or dip just out of boredom. Right now, I make a decision NOT TO BUY ANY TOBACCO PRODUCTS DURING THE CAR TRIP TOMORROW. I'm not a smoker. 

I haven't been making quitting smoking a nightly prayer. This is because I don't have these goals written down to look at often. I think that's something I'll do right now. 

Disclaimer: In my original post here i mentioned that I'm not a "dirty person" and therefor don't smoke. I think that is a pretty lousy attitude toward smoking which I inherited from a girl I used to date. People who smoke aren't dirty people. Smoking, is smelly and gross. But I definitely should have distinguished between a repulsive act and the smoker's dignity. I do stuff people may find repulsive.. often. I hope that doesn't mean i'm a "dirty" person.

late morning

woke up at 10 after a night of heavy drinking. I saw some great live music - Monte Montgomery at the Saxon Pub

Aside from buzzed driving and hitting on a 40 year old, hot, lead-band-member's-girlfriend, I had a fun, responsible evening. 

My goal of drinking with a plan was definitely not followed. I was alone, I drank a full flask of bourbon before going into the bar, and I left at about 2:30. Thank God I didn't call some girl or start texting people. I wasn't really overly intoxicated, but probably should have called someone to pick me up. Next time I need to stop and extrapolate my current mindset into the future, and consider what exactly i'm going to do. 

The night would have been better if i:

• was with someone,


• limited my drinking, and


• alternated between water and beer.

 I just totally forgot my goal to form a new habit. i guess that's why i'm trying to make it a habit.