Spring Forward!

Welcome, spring. Let’s plant some habits!

As the season’s change, we often attempt to cultivate new habits. Think “spring cleaning” or the “summer diet.”

Understandably, as busy people, we face the challenge of maintaining awareness and intention in following through with the behaviors we yearn to implement. I can’t begin to calculate the number of hours my clients spend sharing the universal human struggle of keeping up with a gym routine, sleep schedule, budgets, work tasks or other valued goals.

Are you eager to pursue a task on a regular basis and struggling with the requisite steps? If so, you may consider the following exercise.

Spring Goal Setting, Step by Step:

1. Perhaps for a few moments, you might consider a habit you’ve been yearning to commit to pursuing. Think about what it is that matters a lot.  You might imagine how you may feel if you take steps toward this goal.  For example, you’ve been meaning to organize your desk, and taking steps towards creating a nice work space relates to your value of productivity. You’d imagine feeling more relaxed if you had a peaceful work space with room for a nice vase and some lavender.


2. Next, without judgment, notice some of what has getting you stuck from taking the leap forward, again and again.  Using the aforementioned example, the thing that gets you with stuck is that mountain of papers and tax documents piling up. When you think about it, it feels overwhelming and too time consuming.


3. Add mindfulness! A culprit of difficulty with habit follow through may include mindlessness or a desire to escape difficult feelings that arise. Hey, most people don’t like to wake up at 6 am to do pushups and piles of paperwork can be painful! An alternative to forgetting or running from feelings that arise is bringing awareness to the moment and noticing feelings without avoiding them or the task at hand. “Oh, there’s anxiety as I approach my desk, hello muscle tension and rapid heartbeat,” as you continue to move forward with a reasonable goal in mind.


4. Sign up! I recently stumbled upon a novel website- www.habitforge.com. This wonderful website allows you to plug in a habit you’d like to cultivate and will send you email reminders to follow through.