The M.A.P. Maker

Creating good habits: A kindergarten approach

Have you ever tried to create a new habit, only to find yourself backsliding right back where you started? Here's a simple yet (for me, anyway) effective way to support your effort. 

Back in March, I decided that I needed to build some better habits into my life. I resolved to:

• Exercise 30 minutes a day
• Meditate 20 minutes a day
• Drink 64 ounces of water a day
• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day

My intent was good, but I knew that the implementation of that intention had a perilously short life span if left to its own devices. I needed a way to keep myself on track. 

I decided to take a page from The Kindergarten Handbook (OK, there's not really a Kindergarten Handbook, but there should be). I created a four-columned chart with a column for each habit and went to the local stationery store to buy some sticky stars (multi-colored, thank you very much). I put the chart on the wall where I see it all the time.

Each day that I did my new habit, I got a star in that column. Any day I didn't, I was faced with a huge, ugly, you-failed-buddy expanse of white space. 

It's amazing how effective that approach has been. There was an immediate and sustained shift in behavior. I would like to say that I responded to the reward of being able to put a star up daily for each column, but the reality is that I was more driven by not wanting to see the white space as constant reminder that I didn't do it. 

There have been many days when the only reason I did one of the new habits was because of the chart. 

I did this for a couple months, then fell off for a few weeks. And while I did each of them more consistently than when I had begun (which tells me that I really was deveoping better habits), it was still too easy to just let it slide. I started it up again a couple weeks ago, and have jumped right back to close to 100%. 

What new habits do you want to develop? Why not make a chart and experiment? Maybe it will work for you, maybe it won't (who knows - I might just be stuck developmentally back in kindergarten). But the risk is zero, and the potential upside is huge. What have you got to lose?

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Take a fun approach to fitness

One of the abundance elements I talk about in the M.A.P. concept is health abundance. Our bodies and minds are the machines we use to create, achieve, and experience. When they're not firing on all cylinders, we limit ourselves.

One of the key components to health is fitness. Unfortunately, it seems to be one of those things that a lot of us recognize is important, but can never convince get ourselves to get disciplined about.

I'm convinced that part of that is because we often associate fitness with the grind of sweating our way there, stuck on a treadmill (both literally and figuratively).

I have to admit, if I relied on my discipline to go into the gym and keep fit, I would probably sink deeper and deeper into my couch. Fortunately, a decent level of condition ends up being a by-product of doing the things I enjoy, many of which are fairly physically active.

Bottom line, I stay fit because the ways I stay fit are fun for me, not because I'm so committed to my health.

I've been interested in body drumming ever since I went to a Terry Keith workshop a couple years ago, and I've been experimenting with it more over the last few weeks. The other day I got a new (for me) Rage Against the Machine CD. I popped it into the CD player and soon found myself stomping, slapping, clapping and snapping to the hard driving music. 

It didn't take long before I was breathing heavily and breaking a light sweat. I stopped and thought, "Hey, this is really fun. I need to blog about this."

So here's a thought if you find your health abundance lacking because of your physical fitness (or even if you're uber-fit). Make a list of fun things to do that would get your blood pumping. Maybe it's fun because of the activity, or maybe it's fun because of the company. Then start incorporating those into your life.

Whatever it is, taking that kind of approach to fitness not only helps you stay in shape, it also injects a dose of fun into your life. Two for one. Not a bad deal!

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Plants boost effectiveness and decrease stress

Creating a life you love isn't a just-add-water affair. It takes persistent, consistent action to get (and stay) there. One of the things I work with my clients on is how to create a system that feeds their long-term energy and motivation. We explore ideas they can incorporate into their lives that keep them on track, energized, and engaged, even after the initial burst of excitement.

That system might have any number of facets to it. For example, plants.

Plants?

Yup. Plants. A recent study out of Washington State University suggests that plants on your desk both increase your effectiveness and decrease stress. As the study's abstract summarizes it...

This study documents some of the benefits of adding plants to a windowless work place - a college computer lab. Participants' blood pressure and emotions were monitored while completing a simple, timed computer task in the presence or absence of plants. When plants were added to this interior space, the participants were more productive (12% quicker reaction time on the computer task) and less stressed (systolic blood pressure readings lowered by one to four units). Immediately after completing the task, participants in the room with plants present reported feeling more attentive (an increase of 0.5 on a self-reported scale from one to five) than people in the room with no plants.

Sounds like plants just might be a simple yet surprisingly powerful part of the equation.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide
Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM