Why is self care so elusive as a consistent habit?
Obviously, we live in busy times. Schedules are filled to the brim, and then some. Especially for families.
Whether you work inside the home taking care of family needs or outside earning an income (and then inside…taking care of things), it’s all a bit much for one person.
Humans aren’t designed for the pace of life we now must manage, nor for the nuclear family unit model.
For us with health conditions that slow us down, or being a caretaker of someone, more complexity gets added to the picture.
For me, especially with low grade chronic health issues, it’s easy to downplay the importance of taking better care of myself.
It’s easy to become complacent, because every single day, doing something to take better care of yourself can be what nobody else notices, so it’s not missed.
Self care can become a battle, wrestling with my mind that tells me it’s not worth that much work…it’s an impossible task anyway…other urgent things must be done first.
Urgency wins out over what’s important in the long run.
Day after day.
And our behavior of tending to what’s urgent becomes a habit.
Why is it that bad habits are easy to gain and hard to lose??!!!
One tactic that helps us develop new habits is habit tracking.
Documentation of our actions helps us do more of what we really want and less of what we know isn’t in our best interest.
It helps us not lie to ourselves.
It helps us keep our commitments to ourselves.
- What do you need to change to 10x how good you feel this year?
- What will happen to your family if you keep leaving yourself out of the equation, day after day?
- What has to change for you to put yourself back in the equation?
Jot down your answers in a notebook, then download and customize this habit tracker from Nir Eyal, author of Indistractable.
Yours,
—J
