Jumping Back on the Wagon

Picture by Odense Bys Museer

Since last summer, I've been slacking off a bit when it came to productive and life-improving habits. Sure, we were still eating healthy and I'm still finishing all of my class preparations, but that's about it. I haven't really been focusing on the long-term goals and the house-hold and my blogs have suffered too.

This has been bothering me, and maybe some of you too.

My hubby and I have been waiting for paperwork to get out of China and finally see our US family again. This being in-between where we were and where we want to be has left us feeling like we don't really care so much about the present anymore.
But just sitting around waiting is a waste of time. Especially if it just goes on for months without any idea of when it might get better.

Well, I'm done with it. And for those of you who have started hibernating and letting go of some of the great habits you've built up: this is for you too.

Over the months from September 2010 to August 2011, I started some great habits. I built them up slowly, but by June 2011 we were getting up early, getting daily exercise, eating well, blogging daily, and feeling great about all of it. I loved that time, but when I got first trimester morning sickness, it became impossible to keep up with. 

Now I want it back, but it seems like so much to do at once.

So what do you do? Start with one thing. Build up the habits the way you did before. Today I started with one of the first habits that I picked up before, and the easiest one for me: making a daily plan. I take out my diary (which has been gathering dust on the messy desk in the never-used office) and wrote down a rough outline of what I plan to do each hour. I left some space open to fill in later, but that'll slowly get filled up too. 

It worked pretty well. My day was much more productive than they have been this week, and I felt a lot more energetic. 

When we give up on a habit, we often think that's it. We tried it and clearly it didn't work. But it doesn't have to be that way. An ex-smoker who falls off the wagon doesn't have to settle for smoking for the rest of their life. A busy mom who's gained weight doesn't have to forget about exercising forever.
We each have our times when it's difficult to do the things we know are good for us, and make us happy.

When the time is right, however, you will feel the urge to get back into gear and you can feel confident knowing you've already succeeded once before!