Kestrel Grey Posted September 21, 2019 Report Share Posted September 21, 2019 The Kaizen/Microhabits Challenge I started this unofficially a few weeks ago and it is time to make it official. My life is overwhelming me at the moment, so tiny steps to start it moving forward again - so tiny that even on the worse days I can accomplish it and keep forward momentum. Each week I add one new micro habit and/or expand on a previous one. Tasks In Progress: 1. Take out one piece of recycling on my way out the door. If the garbage or compost is full I'll usually take that out, but some days taking out one can is the biggest task I can handle, so I'm starting there. Successful for about 3 weeks. 2. Walk one flight of stairs at work, then take the elevator the rest of the way. Now up to two floors. Recently I have been taking the stairs all the way but I still have the option of just doing two. 3. Lay out socks for the morning before bed. This was intended to get myself prepping for the morning again, but it's not working. The clothes I end up wearing may need different socks than the ones randomly grabbed. Will rethink this. Next Week's Tasks: 1. Do just the first movement in the Sun Salutation when I get out of bed. 2. Take vitamins with my morning tea. The "rules" are only one additional task per week but they both may be needed. I'm falling into some disordered eating habits and I'm pretty sure I can handle both tasks to try and keep myself healthy while I work through it. Please don't be offended if I don't reply much. 1 Quote Current Challenge: The Cliffs of Insanity Previous Challenges: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35 Battle Log: Operation Fly-By-Night “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman Link to comment
Elastigirl Posted September 21, 2019 Report Share Posted September 21, 2019 Glad to see you .Nice goals. 1 Quote Wisdom 22.5 Dexterity 13 Charisma 15 Strength 21 Constitution-13 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind' Luke 10; 27 Link to comment
Kestrel Grey Posted September 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2019 20 hours ago, Elastigirl said: Glad to see you .Nice goals. Thanks Elasigirl. Nothing like a crisis to make you realize you really need to work on your coping skills! I know most Rangers are familiar with tiny habits. Has anyone read the Kaizen Way? 1 Quote Current Challenge: The Cliffs of Insanity Previous Challenges: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35 Battle Log: Operation Fly-By-Night “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman Link to comment
Kestrel Grey Posted September 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2019 It looks like one pumpkin will ripen before the killing freeze this week! Now to look up pie recipes. 2 Quote Current Challenge: The Cliffs of Insanity Previous Challenges: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35 Battle Log: Operation Fly-By-Night “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman Link to comment
Elastigirl Posted September 22, 2019 Report Share Posted September 22, 2019 Such a cute pumpkin! 1 Quote Wisdom 22.5 Dexterity 13 Charisma 15 Strength 21 Constitution-13 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind' Luke 10; 27 Link to comment
Kestrel Grey Posted September 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2019 Last week's micro-habits Take out two pieces of recycling on my way out the door Walk up the first two flights of stairs Do the first movement in the Sun Salutation when I get up Take vitamins with my morning tea. Next week's micro-habits Practice guitar for 5 minutes a day Pack a serving of fruit or veggies at night for the following day This week has gone well. I feel much calmer, and am learning to be okay with no immediately visible progress (my inner critic is yelling, what do you mean walking up a flight of stairs won't make me lose 10 lbs in a week? but I am ignoring her ). Winter arrived on Friday with three days of snowfall. The end of gardening and biking weather is sad. The beginning of snowshoes and colourful sweaters is happy. We will get through it... only 6 more months until Spring! As I noted in the newest microhabits, I bought a guitar! I used to have one as a teen but didn't get far with it, then it cracked during a move. I am very excited to have a new one now. Random introspection Spoiler Hopefully playing music will help fight some of the depression from not having the time or resilience to train for OCRs. For the past several years I have been kind of telling myself my life would be worthwhile if I was better at sports, or more fit. So the fact I was not getting better, and kept getting injured trying, made me a very cranky, negative person. I can recognize now that this outlook is BS but I am still working on replacing it with a healthier outlook. Bonus picture: early snowfall at Lake Louise Still good hiking weather if you bundle up! 2 Quote Current Challenge: The Cliffs of Insanity Previous Challenges: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35 Battle Log: Operation Fly-By-Night “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman Link to comment
Elastigirl Posted September 30, 2019 Report Share Posted September 30, 2019 I've never been to Lake Louise, but it is on my wish list.Great job on the microhabits and ignoring your inner critic. I like to think of my inner critic as this character in a weird hat, with mismatched ill-fitting clothes, and that makes it easier for me when she says stuff to just sort of laugh it off and not pay attention 1 Quote Wisdom 22.5 Dexterity 13 Charisma 15 Strength 21 Constitution-13 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind' Luke 10; 27 Link to comment
Kestrel Grey Posted October 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2019 Last week's micro-habits Take out two pieces of recycling on my way out the door Walk up the first two flights of stairs Do the first movement in the Sun Salutation when I get up Take vitamins with my morning tea Practice guitar for 5 minutes a day Pack a serving of fruit or veggies at night for the following day Next week's micro-habit Enter my breakfast into MyFitnessPal My recycling , garbage and compost are all empty at the moment. This makes me feel pretty good. It seems that my morning practice of always grabbing something on my way out the door is finally doing what I hoped it would and keeping me on top of it without any major effort. I still usually take all 6 flights of stairs and do one full round of sun salutation in the morning. I don't know if the mini-yoga session will help with my mobility though. I am too stiff and it isn't enough to warm me up. Vitamins I am alternating (multivitamin on one day, and fish oil with vitamin D the second). Packing food is staying at the bare minimum (I toss an apple or a banana in the bag at night) so I am still buying most of my food at work. This still has time to grow though. Guitar... well, it is sort of coming along? I ordered a guitar book but it is taking forever to get here. In the mean time I am just practicing the same 5 chords every day for a couple minutes. Yesterday I missed though - I was out of the house at 6 am and didn't get home until after 9 pm when the bird was asleep so it didn't happen. Thought of the week: I was browsing James Clear's blog and came across his article describing "habit creep". It is basically micro-habits, nothing earth shattering. The thing that struck me is he compared it to lifestyle creep, where your spending goes up as your income does without you really noticing or intending it to happen. In lifestyle creep, it happens naturally because there is room for it to happen. So I'm thinking: maybe it is more important to create the resources (time, tools, knowledge) for your end goal and allow the micro-improvements to happen naturally? Ex. if you want to run for 30 minutes every morning Micro-habits focus: Start by running one minute, then add a minute every few days. You are pushing back on your limits each time you add a minute by having to wake one minute earlier. Revised micro-habits, creating space first: Wake up 30 minutes early, and then run for just one minute. You can spend the rest of the 30 minutes walking, sitting and reading, whatever, as long as you protect that 30 minutes so it is available to run the whole time. Again, this isn't earth shattering stuff but it isn't something I put together before. Micro-habits work best if they can effortlessly increase. This also makes sure your end goal is really something you want in your life. If you have a goal of "study Spanish 10 hours a week" but in setting that time aside, realize you would have to sacrifice more important things, then you could revise your goals immediately instead of getting frustrated when you struggled to meet them. 1 Quote Current Challenge: The Cliffs of Insanity Previous Challenges: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35 Battle Log: Operation Fly-By-Night “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman Link to comment
Elastigirl Posted October 7, 2019 Report Share Posted October 7, 2019 Well done on the week. Hmm, interesting thoughts on microhabits 1 Quote Wisdom 22.5 Dexterity 13 Charisma 15 Strength 21 Constitution-13 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind' Luke 10; 27 Link to comment
SkyGirl Posted October 16, 2019 Report Share Posted October 16, 2019 I love the idea of microhabits!! How are things going for you so far? Quote SKY ELVENWORD NOBLEHEART The Silver Archer, Ranger Level 53 Jesus-follower | Writer | Encourager | Resident Myers-Briggs and Enneagram Geek "Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people." - Fred Rogers Link to comment
Kestrel Grey Posted October 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2019 15 hours ago, SkyGirl said: I love the idea of microhabits!! How are things going for you so far? Hi SkyGirl! This week I am on vacation while my mother is visiting, so microhabits aren't happening. They are anchored by my routine and this week I have none! Next week will be back to normal though so missing one week isn't a big deal. I visited my physiotherapist yesterday. The first time since May - my string of injuries and illnesses kept me from running most of the summer so I didn't bother with her. Actually, I didn't bother with a lot of my fitness maintenance routines. The string of microhabit successes is encouraging me to get back into things again. Next challenge I will include a few larger goals. 3 Quote Current Challenge: The Cliffs of Insanity Previous Challenges: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35 Battle Log: Operation Fly-By-Night “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman Link to comment
SkyGirl Posted October 20, 2019 Report Share Posted October 20, 2019 On 10/17/2019 at 10:15 AM, Kestrel Grey said: Hi SkyGirl! This week I am on vacation while my mother is visiting, so microhabits aren't happening. They are anchored by my routine and this week I have none! Next week will be back to normal though so missing one week isn't a big deal. I visited my physiotherapist yesterday. The first time since May - my string of injuries and illnesses kept me from running most of the summer so I didn't bother with her. Actually, I didn't bother with a lot of my fitness maintenance routines. The string of microhabit successes is encouraging me to get back into things again. Next challenge I will include a few larger goals. I'm glad you're getting a break and that you're aware of your habits and routines! I'm so excited that this system is working for you and I'm looking forward to seeing what you accomplish in the next challenge! 1 Quote SKY ELVENWORD NOBLEHEART The Silver Archer, Ranger Level 53 Jesus-follower | Writer | Encourager | Resident Myers-Briggs and Enneagram Geek "Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people." - Fred Rogers Link to comment
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