Leslie

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I wandered into the Business Books section of Audible last week and grabbed this book: Atomic Habits by James Clear.

TLDR: to make sustainable change in your life, you have to change your systems not focus on goals. He proposes doing this by adding, removing, and stacking atomic habits (very small habits), and attach a time and place to all new habits you want to start. For example, if I want to write more often during the day, and I already read social media on the couch for a few minutes in the morning, I could add a habit:

where I write for 5 min on the couch in the morning after I check social media for 5 minutes.

His examples are things like he wanted to exercise more so he stacked 10 burpees onto his morning computer break:
I will do 10 burpees after I break from work in the morning but before I go to the kitchen to get a morning snack.

He makes other points as well, but one that stuck with me was that you have to see yourself as the person you want to be or as someone who already does what you want. Not, I want to quit smoking, but that I am a nonsmoker. Not that I want to be a writer, but that I am a writer.

It's making me rethink some ideas I have had about goals and think more about the systems (habits) in my life.

Cheers!
 
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I wandered into the Business Books section of Audible last week and grabbed this book: Atomic Habits by James Clear.

TLDR: to make sustainable change in your life, you have to change your systems not focus on goals. He proposes doing this by adding, removing, and stacking atomic habits (very small habits), and attach a time and place to all new habits you want to start. For example, if I want to write more often during the day, and I already read social media on the couch for a few minutes in the morning, I could add a habit:

where I write for 5 min on the couch in the morning after I check social media for 5 minutes.

His examples are things like he wanted to exercise more so he stacked 10 burpees onto his morning computer break:
I will do 10 burpees after I break from work in the morning but before I go to the kitchen to get a morning snack.

He makes other points as well, but one that stuck with me was that you have to see yourself as the person you want to be or as someone who already does what you want. Not, I want to quit smoking, but that I am a nonsmoker. Not that I want to be a writer, but that I am a writer.

It's making me rethink some ideas I have had about goals and think more about the systems (habits) in my life.

Cheers!
Yep! I love that book. I listened to it on Audible as well.
 
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Of course you did! :ROFLMAO: I should have known... So are you doing this? And if so is it working? I have questions.....
 
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Of course you did! :ROFLMAO: I should have known... So are you doing this? And if so is it working? I have questions.....
I've read countless self-help and motivation books. You know me better than most... are they working? hahahahahahaha
 
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"to make sustainable change in your life, you have to change your systems not focus on goals"

So true!!! Making changes that allow me to change my habit automatically takes me to the goals! I've been participating in my RWA's chapter Zoom write-ins for several months now, ever since we started them, and it's made a difference in getting editing or more new words added. Since I'm dropping my RWA membership, I'll no longer belong to the chapter and hated losing those write-ins, so I've started my own that takes place every Thursday from 2-5pm EST. I'd love to have others here join us. We're a relatively small group right now, and not everyone is here every Thursday or always for the full time. But, it's a start of a new system for me and for the others who participate.
 
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I have physical therapy that I should do, but I "don't have time." I can imagine that someone would do one of the exercises after a morning of work before getting a fresh cup of coffee, but I know I'd talk myself out of it--"One exercise isn't enough. It's too much trouble to take out the equipment just for that," etc.

How do your write-ins work? Do you talk before or after, or just silently write?
 
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How do your write-ins work? Do you talk before or after, or just silently write?

We meet at 2, chitchat briefly, sometimes not getting straight into the writing. Maybe announce what our goal is for the next hour, sometimes just nodding our heads at the question of: Does everyone have something to work on? Then we turn off our videos and mute ourselves, go write for the rest of the hour, and meet back on the hour...at 3. How'd we do? Then we repeat the process, meeting at 4 & then again at 5. One guy joins us at 4 because that's when he gets out of work. Sometimes, someone will join us for the first hour or two. Not everyone states for the entire 3 hours.
 
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"to make sustainable change in your life, you have to change your systems not focus on goals"

So true!!! Making changes that allow me to change my habit automatically takes me to the goals! I've been participating in my RWA's chapter Zoom write-ins for several months now, ever since we started them, and it's made a difference in getting editing or more new words added. Since I'm dropping my RWA membership, I'll no longer belong to the chapter and hated losing those write-ins, so I've started my own that takes place every Thursday from 2-5pm EST. I'd love to have others here join us. We're a relatively small group right now, and not everyone is here every Thursday or always for the full time. But, it's a start of a new system for me and for the others who participate.
I'm interested in more information! I have to write around my kids naps so might not be on the hour but if it's okay to still jump in, I might try to do so occasionally. Thanks!
 
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I'm interested in more information! I have to write around my kids naps so might not be on the hour but if it's okay to still jump in, I might try to do so occasionally. Thanks!

Send me a private message with your email address and your name so that I can provide you information.
 
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