My girlfriend’s best friend questioned me incredulously, possibly with disdain.
We were in Anguilla celebrating this friend’s birthday at she and her husband’s invitation.
It was such a lovely gesture to be invited. They had rented an entire villa on the sea and for just over a half a week.
It was for me, also a potential nightmare.
I’m a big city guy. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a world traveler. A restless soul.
I’m also a creature of habit.
I’ve had the same apartment in New York City for over a decade.
I work out every single day.
I’ve built a great sleeping setup so that I can rest and
recharge every night.
I eat the same thing everyday.
I must have 3 bananas and 2 daily iced coffees with Almond milk.
Having these routines allows me to be incredibly flexible in the rest of my life, especially in business.
Working as a retailer and fashion guy, change is constant.
I need some things to be consistent.
It keeps me grounded so that I can take risks elsewhere.
Which brings me back to Anguilla.
The idea of being sequestered in a house for several days is in and of itself an undesirable choice.
Leaving what I eat up to chance is just not how I roll.
So I packed away in my bag containers of almond milk and muesli, knowing I’d be able to start my days exactly how I’d like.
And flew them from New York to a beautiful tropical Caribbean island.
THE POWER OF CONSISTENCY
Any habit can be formed within a month. With consistency and persistence I’ve found that the habit starts to feed itself. Here’s what I mean-
I don’t really love exercising. But doing it everyday at the same time has helped me feel better, stay healthy, and also crave it when I miss a workout.
I find writing hard. It fights my ADD tendency but it feeds my creative tendency. I’ve learned to write every single day and it gets easier.
It’s true of anything, both good and bad.
I love a good Negroni and glass of Cotes du Rhone. During the COVID lockdown, I found myself consuming these with frequency. I had to stop the frequency in order to avoid creating a habit.
I’ve found that one of the great cheat codes to changing my life is changing my habits.
“Success is the product of daily habits- not once-in-a-lifetime transformations”. James Clear in Atomic Habits
As we enter the last month of the year, I find it useful to do an annual review of goals and achievements, in order to help me improve my habits for the upcoming year. I’ll be sharing my tool and process in an upcoming post.
Do you have a goal-setting and review system that works for you? Leave me a comment, I’d love to learn from you.
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