When I was in junior high, I had a mentor who told me something that stuck with me for a long time. He said that it takes 30 days to develop a habit, which meant that if you went one year trying to improve yourself one good habit at a time, at the end of 12 months you’d be a much different person than you are today – for the better.
Those were important words, but just like many things in my life, it never left my head to take up space in my heart. This weekend, I decided to change that.
For the next year, I’m going to spend 30 days at a time trying to develop better habits. For the most part, these won’t be related to work, since (as I’ve mentioned before) I feel as though I’m lacking much more in other departments of my life. The goal would be that after a year of living intentionally in this way, I’d have a much more disciplined, fuller life. At least that’s the goal.
For the next month, I’m going to focus developing better habits for my body. There were two years in college when I was very strict about what I ate, and was a regular visitor at the rec center. A severly twisted ankle on the basketball court kept me out of the gym for a few months, and in the time that transpired a switch went off in my head. That switch told me terrible things, like it was okay to avoid running today, or that no one would miss that sleeve or Oreo cookies sitting in the pantry.
Until I got to New York, I could largely get away with it. But 18 months sitting behind a desk, not working out and eating fantastic but unhealthy food has packed between 25-30 pounds onto my frame.
It seems cliche to get back in shape in preparation for a wedding, but I could use a kick in the pants. Thing is, it’s much more about having a healthy body than an athletic one. And lately I haven’t felt all that healthy.
So month 1 will consist of eating better foods and getting more exercise – I’ve heard these can help. I’ll let you know how I’m doing in a month.
