Many of us already know that resolutions rarely have the sticking power in and of themselves to carry us through twelve months. Like me, you may have stopped making them. Halfway to spring is the perfect time to renew our intentions! This year, a new friend sent me a page about setting intentions.

A series of personal events derailed my schedule one summer. Before moving my home and business, I thought it would be a simple matter to pick up where I left off… but, it was anything but seamless.

Although I was in a new city, with new surroundings, nothing seemed worthy of writing about (said the Evil inner editor). Of course, everyone else’s life always seems more exotic and noteworthy than your own. Client projects were going exceedingly well. I was happy doing their revisions and restructuring their books — easy peasy! Over the course of several projects, I had set aside my own personal writing.

Despite best intentions, finding my writing groove turned out to be elusive. This happened at a very bad time, in that my queue of scheduled posts was due to run out. In my panic, I created my own writer’s block. It had a pretty good chokehold that lasted almost two years.

When people are paying me to write for them, I absolutely cannot disappoint them. And I don’t. Buy personal to-dos often got sidelined.

James Clear’s brilliant idea of improving just one percent was manna to my writing soul! Maybe, to start, I could write just 100 words every day—the long term goal being 1,000. If additional ideas occurred, I could make note of them. The current goal is 100. After a successful week of consistently writing 100 words, I could raise it to 250. It made more sense to me to be in a habit of writing every day and develop posts from the best of those ideas. Making this a daily part of my weekly work, instead of expecting to be inspired to write several in larger blocks of time (which never spontaneously appeared.)

One of his suggestions was to attach a “new” habit to something I already do. You and I have a set of rituals that we implement to get through each day: get up, make our bed, get dressed, work out, shower, and have breakfast or a cup of coffee, go to work, eat lunch, quit work, go home make dinner, and go to bed. To begin a new routine, I will write 100 words after breakfast while at the table. On a particular day of the week, say Sunday over morning tea, I’ll review the week’s writing, choose the most promising one to edit, develop and complete and put them in the queue.

If I can find a way to make the new morning habit fun—like getting a new pen, a snazzy journal or notebook, buying a book of writing prompts—then I look forward to writing time.

By making this part of every morning, I multiply my options for blog posts, and give myself the time to put together higher quality content. Writing new material will no longer be anxiety-producing because I am writing in a relaxed environment. I’m also on the lookout for events, circumstances, and unusual details to create interesting stories.

What does this mean for you?

If you’re serious about your intentions and want to see real fruit from your efforts, ATOMIC HABITS could be a stupendous investment in your future. If you read it and only improve by 1% per day for a whole year, you could have accomplished quite a lot by this time next year. Along the way, remember to celebrate the victories! I’ve started a “Yay!” list. I don’t know enough people who celebrate smaller milestones or victories. The pound that was lost, the mitten that was found, the cake we took a picture of and didn’t eat… the victories the are important to you. List them all! Look for them each day! These are encouragements that cheer us on; small wins leading to bigger wins.

ATOMIC HABITS is a book you really don’t want to miss. It has given me a new way to look at habits that I want to strengthen as well as those I want to lose. I wanted to share it with you—no affiliate links and no kickbacks from the author–because it helped me so much. Now, I’m looking forward to a fantastic 2024!

What are some changes you would like to see in your personal life? How could your business be impacted by this information? Drop you comments below and we’ll see you again soon!