Evaluating Our Daily Habits

I’ve stopped drinking. Well, I started in January with our annual Rethink Your Drink program. I was committed to 31 days and never thought of continuing. This is the first time I’ve given myself a longer break in decades. Yes, decades. As I went through the program again this year, the benefits of not having that nightly glass started to add up:

• Better sleep.

• More clarity.

• Extra time to read.

• Less time thinking about “Why did I have that third glass”

• Why do I never learn?

I’m now almost two months into this curious exploration (I plan to start again at some point drinking here and there) but exploration has taught me a lot about habits. The idea of "what if I changed that daily habit?" has me thinking a lot about the things I do on a daily basis and how my life would be different if I made small and/or significant changes.

What about my morning ritual, what if I switched it up? What if I didn’t scroll so much? What if I can have that time back? How would my life be different? Would it be better?

I recently signed up for the Wake Up Challenge from Mel Robbins. This is one way to change my daily habit – get out of bed when the alarm rings. Take a look at some of her thoughts:

• Part of the reason you don’t have what you want in your life is because when you don’t feel like doing something…

  • You don’t do it. 

  • You stop yourself.

• You can break that pattern. 

  • You can make it a habit to take action instead of overthinking, worrying, or judging yourself.

• If you can push through the resistance of getting up every morning when the alarm rings, you can push through the resistance everywhere in your life.

What habit are you trying to change? Be curious. Who am I without a drink? Is life more fluid? More beautiful? I will continue to let you know as the moments, days and evenings continue.

Yours in exploring self,

Joanie Parsons

Founder/Adventurist of RevelEleven