‘Donut’ give up… How we can harness good habits through rituals*
So good to see you again!
Excited to ‘ready, steady, go’? 🤸♂️
Lovelies, I hope you had the most wonderful, amazing weekend. 🌺
Congratulations - together, we made it into another week! I am immensely grateful for you being here, and for sending so many lovely messages, comments, article ideas and feedback my way. You guys rock! 🙏
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” - Winnie the Pooh
Don’t we all feel like this big-bellied-bear from time to time? Monday mornings have the potential to either be extremely exciting (yaayyyy, a new week to start writing the book / design a new fashion-line / kick-out the frog that is happily living in our bathroom**), or completely terrifying, as their existence reminds us of the many tasks on our To-Do-List we did not tick-off last week, and all the shitty ones that lie ahead of us. 🙈 So we are faced with the choice: Do we get up and get going, or do we try to forget the mountain of work, and hit the snooze button “just one more time”? (yeah, right, just one more time 😅)
We are the summary of our choices.
A while ago, I wrote about Mini Habits, and how they can change our lives. Mini habits are very small positive behaviours that are easy to do every day, for just 2 minutes at a time. By introducing this method into your life, you effectively trick your brain into a) forming a consistent habit, and b) giving you a sense of accomplishment that motivates you to keep going! 👯♂️ Try it out - it might do wonders!
Nevertheless, while our motivation is genuine, and we really do want to become the best version of ourselves, even the best mini habits will crumble away like an over-baked cookie after the first bite if we don’t transform them into a proper behavioural rituals. To say it in the words of James Clear, author of ‘The Atomic Habit’: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Rituals do not restrict freedom - they create it.
Once we understand that it is the summary of our choices that makes or breaks the experience of our day, it is the next step to form rituals or systems around them that help us to reinforce healthy eating, working out, or finally start writing that book we’ve been dreaming about for so long. Customised rituals force us to not question the WHAT of our actions (exercising instead of sleeping), but push us to show up, and start! Thus, we can then focus on the HOW (swimming versus Yoga) - and you will notice a wonderful butterfly effect that will not only transform your day, but over time, your entire life. 💖
Every single of our choices, no matter how small they are, determine the quality of our days.
Rewire your day with these 5 SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)
You hate him or you love him - I personally feel immense gratitude towards Robin Sharma. I am not sure how many videos I watched over the years, listening to the author of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”, but one thing I know for sure: They always left me focused and motivated, made me question a perception or a habit, and thus, gave me the necessary push to take on the world - one day at a time. 🙏 #yeahyeahyeah
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristoteles
In this 12-minute-video below, Sharma speaks about creating five simple, yet super impactful daily rituals that enable us to go for what we really want to do with our lives:
1. The ritual of early rising (or: Get your lazy bum out of bed)
2. The ritual of strategic time-blocking (or: Plan your day, and stick to it)
3. The ritual of over-delivering (or: How to WOW others by underpromising)
4. The 60-minute student (or: Read, read, read)
5. The ritual of private reflection (or: Think about if all the things you did are in your favour)
I follow all 5 of them! 🤸♂️
I wish you a brilliant start into this week! Go and rock it. 🤸♂️
Remember: You are always just one choice away from having an amazing day.
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
P.S.: If you still hate Mondays, then you might want to read “Why do we hate Mondays? Let’s try not to.”
*and at least today do not eat Donuts for breakfast
** true story, and it would not be a problem if the frog stopped singing loudly for the rain to come at night 🙈🐸
