On building habits...
On building habits. I think I’ve written about this before, but it’s so important to me that maybe it’s worth a revisit. In the practice of trying something new...maybe you fail, hate what you created, can’t stay focused, lose interest, there are endless reasons to give up before the magic has a chance to set in. You can allow time to pass until the muse flies past you again, then you catch onto a wing and a prayer and try again. Maybe this time you can see how a rhythm might catch and off you go, there you have it, it’s becoming a habit. But wait! Don’t get too excited, who are you kidding, life is much to busy to fit this new thing in with alllll of the other things that need to be accomplished. You can’t possibly take this much time out of each day just to do something for yourself. And then it all comes to a screeching halt. And there you go, back into life with this new habit waiting in the wings, You just don’t have it in you to be that dedicated, reckless, focused (insert your own word here), life will go on...no big deal. Until that muse flies by once again. You never know where it will come from, or when it will come, you just need to be paying attention. So once again you grab onto a wing and off you go and hopefully this time it will stick around long enough to feel comfortable. Maybe even feel like home, like something you can’t live your day without. It just feels right and fits like a glove. Sure it may up and leave now and then, but you know it will always return...if you are quiet enough to pay attention, it will always come back, settle in, and feel just right.
Sound familiar? This could be about your art practice, healthy living habits, or my own current habit that I’m building is writing morning pages inspired by the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I tried to build this habit a few times and now I’m a couple of weeks in and hoping it sticks. It’s a practice of longhand writing three pages of running thoughts first thing in the morning (truth be told, I only fill one page, I will work my way up to three, I promise.) as well as some other fun things like artists dates where you take time to go out in the world in search of inspiration all by yourself. Doesn’t that sound amazing? (I won’t tell if you take a friend along with you.)
“THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron is not exclusively about writing—it is about discovering and developing the artist within whether a painter, poet, screenwriter or musician—but it is a lot about writing. If you have always wanted to pursue a creative dream, have always wanted to play and create with words or paints, this book will gently get you started and help you learn all kinds of paying-attention techniques; and that, after all, is what being an artist is all about. It’s about learning to pay attention.”–Anne Lamott, Mademoiselle
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, you can find it in my amazon shop here: https://www.amazon.com/shop/kimmyerssmith
So, who’s in?
And just in case you’d like to read my prior post on building habits…https://www.kimmyerssmith.com/blog/on-habits