'Tis the season to renew better habits. Maybe you started at the new year, setting resolutions, and working toward a better year than last, but for myself, it is always Lent. I feel much less frustrated this lenten season than I have in years past, perhaps if only for the reason that I know so much more about changing habits.
You see, we tend to track our progress by marking a day as "win or lose." Today I failed, but yesterday I succeeded. We try to quit yelling, quit complaining, remember that task right away.... and at the end of the day we failed again. Or was it really failure? Somewhere in my readings, someone pointed out that changing our habits goes through very slow stages. And never-mind that popular book title, it can take far more than thirty days. The first stage is just recognizing what change needs to be made. That alone can be difficult. Perhaps someone pointed out a flaw in your life, and you don't believe it. Surely, there is nothing wrong with your diet, or the way you treat your kids, or the chatter you make about other's lives. Perhaps you know something needs to change, but you just don't care yet. Perhaps you know what is wrong, but you haven't figured out what to do yet. So congratulate yourself on that first step, which is just identifying *what* to do.
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JpgA mother, pondering what it means to be loved. CategoriesArchives
March 2017
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