My Journey to Establishing New Habits
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WHY LENT - WHY NOT?
I'm not much of a religious person by any habit of tradition. However, for the sake of a religious tradition, I have decided to take up the tradition & significance of Lent as my premise for installing new & edifying habits to a better me. To me, Lent has historically represented a time for personal commitment and sacrifice - what better time to commit to CHANGE by sacrificing my old/bad habits - trading them in for a set of new/better habits?!
Lent is in recognition/representative of the time when Jesus retreated to the desert spending 40 days & 40 nites where he fasted and was tested/tempted by the devil... these days lead to the culmination of celebrating the Easter - celebrating the resurrection. Again, i'm not religious, but do recognize the significance of Lent - a time of self discipline, meditation/reflection (aka: prayer), and fasting.
On an emotional level and practical perspective, I'm a sucker for symbolic events (i.e., new years, anniversaries, birthdays, etc. - emotional); and I also know that any new habit manifests the rewards and results after a solid 30days of consistent and committed effort. So why not 40 days and 40 nites?! the 10 extra days to commitment can only help ensure a successful outcome of a committed plan/habit/behavior!
Meeting my Needs for Lasting Change:
Framing the start of my new goals/plans with the timeliness and significance (both personal and traditional) of Lent gives me a boost in my need for connection (to my youth -being raised a christian), my need for certainty (personal experience that committed 30days to action leads to the fruits of my labor); my need for variety (i have a score of goals/plans to follow up on for the next 40days and 40nites); and my need for growth (the benefits received during my journey and by attaining my personal goals).
so now we know WHEN and WHY... the next step is to describe WHAT metamorphosis I propose to go thru... something i've been procrastinating for farrrrr tooo long (many, many new years and birthdays past) where I was supposed to define my new life... determine my life plan. and ironically, in the tradition of my old pattern/habit of procrastination... I will define that ... tomorrow!
Good nite! the practical schedule of sleep & rest for preparation of tomorrow calls.
-sm2009!
I'm not much of a religious person by any habit of tradition. However, for the sake of a religious tradition, I have decided to take up the tradition & significance of Lent as my premise for installing new & edifying habits to a better me. To me, Lent has historically represented a time for personal commitment and sacrifice - what better time to commit to CHANGE by sacrificing my old/bad habits - trading them in for a set of new/better habits?!
Lent is in recognition/representative of the time when Jesus retreated to the desert spending 40 days & 40 nites where he fasted and was tested/tempted by the devil... these days lead to the culmination of celebrating the Easter - celebrating the resurrection. Again, i'm not religious, but do recognize the significance of Lent - a time of self discipline, meditation/reflection (aka: prayer), and fasting.
On an emotional level and practical perspective, I'm a sucker for symbolic events (i.e., new years, anniversaries, birthdays, etc. - emotional); and I also know that any new habit manifests the rewards and results after a solid 30days of consistent and committed effort. So why not 40 days and 40 nites?! the 10 extra days to commitment can only help ensure a successful outcome of a committed plan/habit/behavior!
Meeting my Needs for Lasting Change:
Framing the start of my new goals/plans with the timeliness and significance (both personal and traditional) of Lent gives me a boost in my need for connection (to my youth -being raised a christian), my need for certainty (personal experience that committed 30days to action leads to the fruits of my labor); my need for variety (i have a score of goals/plans to follow up on for the next 40days and 40nites); and my need for growth (the benefits received during my journey and by attaining my personal goals).
so now we know WHEN and WHY... the next step is to describe WHAT metamorphosis I propose to go thru... something i've been procrastinating for farrrrr tooo long (many, many new years and birthdays past) where I was supposed to define my new life... determine my life plan. and ironically, in the tradition of my old pattern/habit of procrastination... I will define that ... tomorrow!
Good nite! the practical schedule of sleep & rest for preparation of tomorrow calls.
-sm2009!
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