Turning a Daily Routine Into a Habit

Either you run the day or the day runs you!
Jim Rohn

by Skip Cohen

​It's Sunday, and as always, I'm stepping away from business and marketing. My thoughts this morning are about some not-so-secret ingredients to finding happiness each day.

The younger you are, the more the day tends to run you. It's inevitable because you're still establishing your goals. New projects, networking, discovering your passions, risk-taking, and building your skillset are all in the works together, along with dozens of other components of your journey to being an adult, or at least acting like one.

This is Sunday Morning Reflections, and it's meant to be short - so here's one suggestion - establish a routine for your day. I'm pretty much in my office for most of the day, but we always start with 20-30 minutes of exercise whether walking or swimming laps. I take breaks for breakfast together with Sheila, time with the pups, and "Nap-Time" for all four of us. In fact, it's always a laugh when one of us yells "Nap-Time," and even the pups know to jump on the bed. It's a 30-45 minute break, and I even shut the phones off.

When I went off on my own, I was worried about being able to stay focused working at home. The truth is, it was the opposite. The hardest thing for many years was shutting down. We'd go to bed, and I'd stop to check email or social media for "just a minute"...and an hour later, I'd emerge. Now, everything, including my cell phone, gets shut down at the end of the day.

Here's my point this morning - the significant components of our daily routine are exercising every day, those power naps, eating right and getting a good night's sleep. Sheila and I especially wanted exercise to become a habit. I hit cyberspace to find out how long it takes for something to become a habit. Most of what I read had it as 8-10 weeks.

On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely
depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances.*
JamesClear.com

Wishing everybody a day ahead that's filled with nothing but good habits, starting with those long therapeutic hugs with the people you care most about. Find a routine that works for you and then stick with it...but leave time to break the routine too - for us it's the weekend. Saturday is the Farmer's Market with the pups and Sunday is just a great day to chill.

Happy Sunday or Monday if you're on the other side of the world.