3 Habits for life transformation

These 3 habits have transformed my life and I believe they can improve your life as well. The big 3 for me are: walking, reading and meditating. I’m going to look at the positive effect of these habits as well as the ability to layer them with other habits. And, I’ll be guiding you through ideas to make these habits attainable.

Walking

You would be surprised how beneficial walking is to your body. The Cleveland Clinic has an excellent article describe the health benefits. I admit that I didn’t start out wanting to walk. I was going to take up running/jogging. There was a great app called ‘couch to 5k‘ and I was going to use that to work up to a 5k. Well, my knee decided that I needed to make other plans.

I was depressed and began walking a bit and felt like a failure. But, I am a competitive person and heard that a good goal is to walk 10,000 steps a day. I started measuring my daily steps with 10,000 as a goal. The act of measuring those steps motivated me to walk more.

Keystone habits

James Clear has an excellent book called, “Atomic Habits“. In his book Clear talks about ‘keystone habits‘. These are habits that, “…lead to a cascade of other actions because of them”.

Walking became a keystone habit for me. I was walking for about a half an hour and decided to listen to things at the same time. Sometimes I’d listen to a podcast and other times music.

A former student contacted me at this time and asked if I wanted to do a Bible reading plan with him. It was a plan that led you through the entire Bible in ONE MONTH using the Youversion Bible app. I took him up on the challenge and decided that I would use the time walking to listen to the readings. It was an amazing month!

My wife then pointed me to the hoopla app. I use this app to access an enormous amount of audiobooks from our county library system. And, it is completely free if you have a library card! I started listening to everything I could find. I also learned a good trick during this time. You can listen at 1.25 or 1.5 and still understand what is being said. Now I can walk for 30 minutes, listen at 1.5 and hear 45 minutes of a book or podcast!

Reading

I’ve been reading books since I was a little kid. You can read an earlier blog that details my early experiences with reading.

Reading allows me to get into the heads of other people. You become like the people that you spend time with. You can listen to a podcast or read a blog post, but nothing equals the amount of studied intensity someone puts into a book. When you read an average paperback book, you are getting at least a year of someone’s life condensed into that book.

I find that reading tends to show up in my life in unexpected ways. I’ll be in conversation and something from a book will pop into my head. As a teacher, I’ve had times that I brought a book in and read a passage to the students because I felt it was appropriate. Some students will ask what I’m reading. Reading becomes contagious!

Meditation

When I was younger, if you mentioned meditation, all I thought about was sitting in the lotus position and chanting. As a christian, I didn’t even think it was allowed. I wish I could define the moment when I realized the value of mediation, but I can’t. But, I can say that it has shown great value in my life.

I mentioned James Clear above. He talks about making a new habit ‘easy’. If you want to go to the gym, pick one that is on the way home and not across town, etc. I have a habit of stretching in the morning. (A whole different story)

I found a christian mediation app and started playing it during my stretching routine. Adding this to my morning routine requires zero extra time. I am already occupied with stretching. Meditating daily allows me to start the day focused and breathing.

I currently use the Lectio 365 app. This app gives morning and evening mediations and it is free! I use the Pause app with my son in the evenings. The app has a 30 days to resilient program which is life-changing and free. The pause app also has a one minute pause which pretty much destroys any thoughts you might have about not having enough time to meditate. Other apps include: encounter, hallow, abide …. search for christian meditation in the app store and you’ll find a bunch.

Get started today!

You may find that one of these habits resonates with you, or you may have something else in mind. Journal, take up different exercise programs, decide to smile more …. You decide, but you need to start now. There’s an old proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now.”