Do Something Different

It’s week one of the Discipline Project and I’m inspired by a post I read called How To Change Bad Habits. I definitely have a habit every morning: checking email and Facebook. Usually with a cup of coffee and some sort of bread-based carb.

I’m officially ditching this habit. Yesterday and today I’ve woken up, drank some water and exercised. That will be my new morning routine.

Now, how to help myself stick to it? One thing I’m going to try is turning my computer off at night. If it’s on, all energetic and waiting for me in the morning, I am tempted to just look at my email (although I have no idea why because it’s rare that I get anything other than spam between bedtime and waking). Then it’s easy to get sucked in and suddenly I’m out of time to exercise.

The second thing I’m doing is allowing myself to just do a little exercise. In the past, the thought of doing an all-out workout when I’m not feeling motivated has been daunting enough to make me skip it. But I’m telling myself it’s OK to just do some push-ups or some crunches. Most of the time when I start out saying I’m just going to do push-ups, I end up doing more exercise anyway. It’s all about taking that first step and overcoming the inertia.

So here’s your challenge for the week: Do something different. Pick a small, specific behavior and change it. Tell me about it in a comment or on Twitter and we can hold each other accountable.

Image credit: Toothpaste For Dinner.

Tagged as: change, self-improvement