Life’s major transitions often present opportunities for personal transformation. My relocations have taught me the power of such moments. Each move was a chance to establish new routines that align with my evolving goals and values.

Since moving to Charleston in July 2023, I’ve embraced lifestyle changes that resonate with my current aspirations. This includes embracing more physical activities, exploring new hobbies, and being mindful of my mental health. These steps reflect my journey towards a lifestyle that feels authentic and fulfilling.

To aid my journey, I decided to re-listen to James Clear’s Atomic Habits. My goal was to gain insights into how I can better understand and change my habits. Revisiting James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’ has been enlightening, especially his insights on the role of environment in habit formation. Clear suggests a nuanced view – seeing our environment as a network of relationships that can support our personal growth. This perspective has been instrumental in reshaping how I approach habit formation.

Another thing that stuck with me on this listen was some of the reasons James highlighted for people failing to establish good habits. Clear states, “Motion allows us to feel like we’re making progress without the risk of failure.” which spoke volumes to me. For years I’ve been saying I want to get healthy, I want to start a blog, I want to pick up an artistic outlet but I never put these things into action. The “planning” and inconsistent habits made me feel like I was making progress without actually making meaningful progress.

Hacking my day

One thing that I’ve recently come to understand about myself is that I have a compulsive personality that puts me at risk of addiction. I’ve struggled with substance abuse, alcohol abuse, smoking and gambling. To be clear, I’m not passing judgment on anybody who partakes in these habits; I’ve just come to learn that these habits are something that I personally need to keep an eye on.

One habit that brings this tendency towards compulsion front and center for me has always been smoking cigarettes. I previously quit smoking several times; I would stop smoking for months on end and then fall right back into the habit. During my periods of being cigarette free I noticed that it was easier for me to focus on not buying the cigarettes. Once purchased, I would fall back into the same trap of smoking multiple cigarettes in a day. What I learned was that if I didn’t make the cigarets available to me I didn’t crave the act of smoking nearly as much.

To prevent me from falling back into these habits I decided I need to apply more structure to my day to day. My hypothesis is that I need to “pre-make” as many decisions as possible. These premade decisions are in alignment with my current aspirations for myself. The version of me that was ambitious, motivated, and curious should be making the decisions not the compulsive version of myself who is reactionary. I theorize that if I can remove the point in time decision making then I’m more likely to align my day to day decisions with the version of myself that I aspire to.

I know the below schedule may seem a little intense but it’s what I will be trying to follow on weeknights in the new year. If I ever feel overwhelmed with the regiment I remind myself of my high school days, when life felt much simpler. Back then my routine was something like: morning lifting or swim, go to school, after school lift/swim, coaching, dinner, and finally bed.

The other thing That I hope to implement to hold myself accountable is a regular review of my progress. I haven’t quite figured out the mechanics of the tracking yet. As James states in the book though, “If you are currently winning, you exploit, exploit, exploit. If you are currently losing, you continue to explore, explore, explore.” and “the wrong measurement will get you the wrong behavior.” I think to this end it’s important to regularly reflect on my progress and whether my habits are having the desired effect on my personal growth journey.

Another point made by Clear, is tying your desired habits to something you enjoy. For every published blog post I will treat myself a glass of whiskey; I plan on rotating through 12 different whiskeys this year (with a focus on places that I’ve visited). This not only ties the desired behavior (blogging) to a reward (glass of whiskey) but it will also help me accomplish one of my longstanding goals of learning more about the world of Whiskey. The first Whiskey I’ll be enjoying, as soon as this blog post is published, is Vesey’s Bourbon by Charleston Distilling Co.

Most importantly through all of this I think it is important to remember that the changes and habits are not going to form overnight. What I’m looking for is incremental gains in the right places. I need to remember that “The breaking of a habit doesn’t matter if the reclaiming of it is fast” and that it is “It’s better to do less than you hoped than nothing at all. No zero days.”

What’s inspiring me this week?

1. Current Audio Book: Daily Rituals How Artists Work by Mason Currey – A listing of the daily rituals followed by some of histories most famed artists. A good reminder that there are no “good” or “bad” habits but the repetition is what often leads to creativity.
2. Currently Reading: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – I’ve heard a lot of things described as stoic but have only a wikipedia level via of what the philosophy entails. I hope to learn more through this classic reading.
3. Currently Drinking: Vesey’s Bourbon by Charleston Distilling Co