“Begin at the beginning,” the King said very gravely, “go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
Lewis Carroll
Excellent advice for telling a story, but applicable to so many things.
I’ve begun developing two new habits; rising earlier and daily back maintenance yoga. I have done so using my own interpretation of James Clear’s methods. I start very small, with the tiniest possible change, and repeat it daily, while trying to get a little better each day.
This method worked perfectly for the four baseline habits of my new lifestyle; early rise, daily exercise, daily writing, and daily videos. By applying the aforementioned method I have reached the point where not doing these base four things makes me anxious.
I have to do them, but I want more.
My writing and videos are better, simply by getting in the reps. My exercise got better to a certain point, but has plateaued; I’m in good shape, but not good enough, I want more.
It is the same with my early rising. I’m getting up earlier than ever before in my life, but I want more.
At the same time, I never want to go through another back pain episode like this one.
So, I have two big things to work on, in small steps; backing up my wakeup time, and improving my back maintenance yoga habits. I started yesterday, and now must increment until they’re fully ingrained as habits.
But what about Lewis Carroll?
The flaw in applying his storytelling method to developing habits is, there is no end, therefore there is no stop.
At midsummer, when I believe I have these habits ingrained, it will simply be time to move on to the next in a cycle of permanent improvement.
