October habit tracker

“If you want a change, you have to be willing to make a change.”
I have been listening to Gretchen Rubin’s book, “Happier At Home,” and that line has been ringing in my head. It’s so simple, but so true.
As you all now know from doing the math on my family date canvas, I’m 47 years old. I’m old enough to act like an adult. And yet, many times I seem to think I’m just going to start doing things adults do without any effort on my part. I will suddenly start adulting.
I will start making my bed every morning. I will send thank you notes on time. I will floss my teeth every night. I will feed my family nutritious and well-balanced meals.
But if I don’t ever take any action to do any of these things, why do I think they will magically start happening on their own? I’ve always loved setting yearly goals for myself, but after listening to Rubin’s book, I am realizing how powerful it can be to set a monthly goal.
In “Happier at Home,” Rubin took one year and gave herself a set of habits to accomplish each month. Many of them were so simple. For example, she decided to give warm greetings and fond farewells when her husband or two daughters entered or left the house. How easy is that? And yet, how often do the kids go off to school with nothing more than a “Bye, Mom!” shouted from downstairs while I’m getting out of the shower upstairs.
I also love how she used certain months to tackle larger goals, like actually uploading her photos to Shutterfly and getting her photo albums printed. I’ve been inspired to make a list of some nagging projects that I could accomplish if I would just set aside a few minutes each day to get them done!
At the beginning of October, I decided to start things off with a habit tracker for the month. At first, I tried creating one in my bullet journal, but I was quickly dissastified because it’s not nearly neat or cute enough. Instead, I redesigned it on my computer and printed it out to keep in my planner. (Here’s one you can download.) My habits for the month include reading my Bible everyday, making my bed (again!) and walking 12,000 steps each day. I’m also tracking my weight each day.
I’ve started a list in my bullet journal of the larger projects I want to tackle as well. I think it’s time for me to admit that our old home movies that are stored on VHS aren’t magically going to convert themselves to DVD. All of the photos on my computer aren’t suddenly going to show up on my door step in the form of a photo album. And we only have a few more years that these wonderful children are going to live in our home. I need to be more intentional in a few areas with them!
How about you? Do you have any new habits you are trying to create? What are the big projects that you need to tackle? I would love to hear!