I subscribe to Zen Habits.  It’s a great read on my bus ride to work in the mornings (thank you…Black Berry).  To be honest, I don’t read all the emails I receive but sometimes there’s one that speaks true and loudly to me.   This morning, it was like Leo was speaking to me directly.  This morning’s post was entitled: The One Deadly Sin of Changing Habits.  Basically what he is saying is: In order to change a habit you have to stop doing the habit.  Sounds so simple…doesn’t it?

I’ve been trying to change my habits lately.  I’ve started making myself 30 day challenges.  For example, I just finished a “No sugar in my coffee” 30 day challenge. I am trying to kick the habit of drinking coffee and I am doing it in stages.  My challenge went fairly well.  I only cheated a couple of times so the majority of the time, I was not using sugary-goodness in my coffee.  I don’t enjoy coffee as much without sugar and that certainly reduced the amount of coffee I was drinking.  Now I don’t think it changed my habits because I still WANT sugar in my coffee.  Is that still breaking a habit?  I suppose it’s like what Leo says…not doing the habit, is breaking the habit. 

I am trying to meditate. I have A LOT of thoughts running through my head and I need to settle it down because it is starting to affect my health and happiness.  This is habit I NEED to get into and yet I struggle to do it.  All I need to do is 3 minutes in the morning and 3 minutes before bed.  Am I doing it? NO. WHY? Well..that is something I need to figure out but perhaps if I didn’t think about it so much and just did it, I would be more sucessful.   

Looks like I have a new mantra…

In order to break a habit, you have to not do the habit.

In order to start a habit, you have to do the habit.

What habits are you trying to break and/or start?

Since enrolling into  Style School I have really tried to look inside and see what defines me.  I have had a hard road to follow in life and I have defined myself with the wrong things. I am trying to refocus and really see who I am and what makes me…me.  I took one of the projects and turned it into a reflection of some of the things I {heart}.  It’s funny to see what you {heart} when you sit down and think about it.  For me, these things didn’t come to me right away.  I had to reflect a bit and even that is a revelation to me.  You would think I could name off of the things I {heart} right away. 

Here’s my I {heart} mini-album inspired by Project 18 from Style School!

I need a style makeover or more like a style intervention so I’ve enrolled into Style School!

Looking forward to being inspired again. I need it. This winter has been an energy drain.