Surprise something on social media that has nothing to do with the election. Its over, I voted, and now I am going back to living my life the same. Well I get on Twitter less because political arguments that are limited to 140 characters are just… Any who.

I am a very habitual person, I wake up, well more like used to wake up every morning at 4:15 and fall into my usual routine of eating, feeding my chicks, reading my bible, and then heading to the gym to gainz it up. I did all of this partially because I am a morning person but also because it was a habit, a mindless action of following familiar steps. I am queued by different situations to naturally fall into a pattern. Heck sometimes I find myself mindlessly driving to the wrong location because that’s where I normally go.

Habits are a large part of my life, and help me accomplish the things I desire. I still am spontaneous and do the things that I want to do, habits just makes it easier because I’m subconsciously queued to do it. Like when I go to class, I want to take notes but I never have to consciously tell myself to get paper out and take notes, I just simply do it. Or if I don’t need to take notes for a rudimentary and pointless class I am in (not bitter), I don’t think about not taking out my notebook, the room tells my body to do nothing until attendance that is conveniently at the end of class.

Habits are great, except when the habit is bad and works against my desires.

A few weeks ago I was extremely tired and slept in one day. And that one day turned to two, and before I knew it my habit was demolished and replaced with waking up late and getting McDonald’s for breakfast instead of going to the gym. Ironic, but also annoying.

Annoying because on the rare days that I would wake up at my normal time and go workout, it would be a struggle and a battle. A new habit of turning off my alarm and returning to dreamland took over, so now I am fighting my internal instinct instead of going with it. Which trying to be disciplined when your warm comfy bed is two feet away is about as challenging as abstract algebra.

So, I am in the process of rebuilding my habitual morning routine and am reminded of how habits are not created but merely replaced and how I always have an opportunity to make a better use of my routine and time. Because shockingly I don’t have only good habits.

Now I am not going to try and poorly explain the science of how to redefine, replace, and rebuild habits, but if you are a nerd like me and enjoy the science behind all of this I recommend reading The Power of Habits by Duhigg.

And if you’re not a nerd I will simply leave you with this. Be conscious of the things you routinely do because minor adjustments in your regular cycle can make all the difference with how productive and impactful you are throughout the day. The things you say and do are guided by the habits you have formed.

As always, make good choices, share if you like what I said, comment if you have something to add, give that follow button a hit, and I will see you on Tuesday or maybe Thursday. I have three tests next week so who knows how the week will play out.