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Chocolate Musings

Set your goals - make the plans - artfully create your life - live it beautifully. Grab the good chocolate and find your muse.

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Home » habits » Page 2

25+ Gratitude Quotes for Your Planner

October 17, 2019 2 Comments

25+ Gratitude Quotes for Your Planner

Celebrating #NationalGratitudeMonth

Considering that November is #NationalGratitudeMonth I plan on focusing more thoughts and time to developing gratitude. Do you feel like it’s something you could improve in your life, too?

I found some great quotes on gratitude and I wanted to share them with you. Feel free to use any of them in your planner. Many of these quotes would work well in your planner or bullet journal. In fact, many of them would work well inscribed on a wall.

Gratitude isn’t just for #NationalGratitudeMonth in November. I know I need to include the practice of celebrating gratefulness more often in my life. In fact, I’d like to make it a daily practice, more so than I do right now. But what better time to start than now?

Want More Random Holidays?

Find my stash of random holidays here.

If you’re coming across this post whether it’s November, February or June or any time between, these gratitude quotes are a great starting point as a reminder to stop and appreciate the world around us and the things we have in our lives. My challenge to you is to find some way to elevate your expression of gratitude. I’d love to know about your adventure.

If you use any of these quotes in your planner, I’d love to see and share them so tag me on Instagram @ChocolateMusingsCreates.

Subclasses of Gratitude Quotes

After reading many of these quotes, it occurred to me that I could classify these gratitude quotes into sub-categories. I’d love to get some feedback from you – if I should move a quote to a different sub-category or create a whole new sub-category for these reminders of gratefulness, please leave me a comment below!

Also, I’d love to know if I skipped over any of your favorite gratitude quotes. Drop me a line and let me know!

25+ Gratitude Quotes Perfect for your Planner or Bullet Journal | ChocolateMusings.com #planning #journaling #gratitude

Gratitude Quotes – World Around Us

When you view your world with an attitude of gratitude, you are training yourself to focus on the good in life. – Paul J Meyer

Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe. – Wayne Dyer

The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see. – Mary Davis

Some people grumble that roses have thorns. I am grateful that thorns have roses. – Alphonse Karr

The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields, and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs is more people to appreciate and enjoy it. – Michael Josephson

Personal Transformation

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. – William Arthur Ward

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated. – William James

Gratitude is one of the strongest and most transformative states of being. It shifts your perspective from lack of abundance and allows you to focus on the good in your life, which in turn pulls more goodness into your reality. – Jen Sincero

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more, it turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. – Melody Beattie

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. – Henry Ward Beecher

When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears. – Anthony Robbins

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. – Willie Nelson

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. – Gerald Good

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein

Happiness

I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy. – Will Arnett

I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude. – Brene Brown

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. – Dennis Waitley

Gratitude & Action

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – John F. Kennedy

Enjoy every moment.

You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Abundance

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. – Cynthia Ozick

Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for. – Zig Ziglar

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. – Robert Brault

The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement. – Charles Schwab

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness. – Dalai Lama

“Enough” is a feast – Buddhist Proverb

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get. – Frank A Clark

Want More Quotes? Here’s My Growing List

Quotes are and forever will be among my favorite things in this world. So I will strive to share more with you. View my list of quote-related blog posts.

Which Gratitude Quotes Do You Like the Most?

After reading some of these quotes, I know I am lacking in the gratitude department and will strive to live with an attitude of gratitude. Which ones are your favorite or how would you classify the gratitude quotes?

If what they say is true, gratitude will help enhance your life, bring more meaning to your days, make you see clearly the true blessings in your life and enhance the peace you feel.

I am all for these things, and if you are too, let’s try adding a little more gratitude every day to our lives. Rather than feel guilty, let’s become more grateful. We can do this, together.

Because I want to be sure that expressing more gratitude actually works, I plan on writing either a sentence or a word that I’m grateful for every day in November. Either dedicating a page in my planner for the word or phrase or writing it in my journal. Do you want to express more gratitude as well? And as a result of your gratitude experiment, what do you think it will do to your outlook on life?

Want to start planning or bullet journaling? Here are some of my favorite supplies to get you started.

No Matter Which Notebook I use – You’ll Always Find These Supplies Close at Hand

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Filed Under: Blog, Find Your Happy, Get Inspired, Journal Prompts & Ideas, Quotes & Words to Inspire Tagged: gratitude, Gratitude month, gratitude quotes, habit creation, habits, personal transformation, Quotes, quotes for your planner

Why I Weigh-in Every Day – Creating Healthy Habits

October 6, 2019 3 Comments

How Weighing-in Every Day Helps Me Create Healthy Habits that Last | ChocolateMusings.com #tracking #habits #weightloss

If you’re working on losing a few {or a lot} pounds, you probably understand the battle with the scale. Should you weigh-in every day or should you designate a day to record your wins and losses?

Why I decided to weigh-in every day doesn’t have to do with continually checking my ups and downs. Instead, it has to do with creating habits.

I’m no expert when it comes to fitness, nutrition or weight loss, and I only have one test subject {which is me}, but I’m sharing my habits & my journey to lose weight and increase my fitness in hopes that I might inspire someone out there. Because I know some people have inspired me. Check out this post – 3 Things to Learn From Your Friend’s Weight Loss Journey.

  • handmade game board tracker for classrooms, teachers & bullet journals | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #bujo #tracker #gameboard
    Printable Tracker Game Board – Turn anything into a game!
    $6.00
    Select options

I also use this gameboard tracker to record progress in my journey.

Should You Weigh-in Every Day?

There are countless articles and studies on habits & weight loss. Some say that you should weigh-in every day, some disagree. I didn’t follow any given research, I decided how I would track my progress, and it’s worked for me, so far.

It’s essential that you get to know yourself and figure out what motivates you on a personal level to create habits and achieve your goals.

Why I Weigh-in Everyday

I weigh in every morning first thing because it creates a habit. Honestly, it’s not for the number on the scale, it’s because it creates a pattern, a momentum for the rest of the day. Since I chose to create a healthier lifestyle as a focus in my life, it’s my way of aligning my thinking every morning with the way I want to live my life.

Never in my life would I think that I would be an advocate for creating habits. But habits have been the thing to help me make the most improvements in my life. And when it comes to weight loss or a health journey, it’s no different.

What Does Habit Have to Do With It?

Over the past two years, I’ve read a lot of books on habits. If you were to ask to distill them all down into a one-paragraph summary, I would say: “Habits create a framework for your life. Automate processes for the actions you don’t want to consciously think about so you can focus your attention and daily energy on the activities that produce joy and significance in your life.”

In other words, I want to train myself so those healthy decisions (should I eat this, or do I need that?) to become second nature. And I have learned that if you want something to become second nature, you have to focus on it and create a habit so when the practice ‘takes’ you don’t have to think about it anymore.

Habit Books

Here are some books I’ve read on organizing, decluttering, and habits. I’d love a recommendation and add it to my list. Let me know if you have more to add in the comments below.  

 

Many people don’t like to step on the scale every day and instead designate a ‘weigh-in day.’ When I forget on that appointed day, I would feel like a failure, even though it wasn’t a big deal.

If I make a habit of weighing in every morning after I wake up, and it spurs me into making the right choices throughout the day. I’m sure you know this, but if you mess up one day, it doesn’t mean you’ve messed up all of the days.

I know a lot of people and studies state that it is not about weight, it’s about how you feel, it’s about how your clothes fit, etc. Well, I’ve been there, done that and I cheat on it. So I need something tangible to track and action to do each day to focus on my end goal.

  • We are what we repeatedly do. - Aristotle | ChocolateMusings.com #quote #habit #handlettered
  • We are what we repeatedly do. - Aristotle | ChocolateMusings.com #quote #habit #handlettered
  • We are what we repeatedly do. - Aristotle | ChocolateMusings.com #quote #habit #handlettered

How Weighing-in Every Day Sets the Tone for the Day

Stepping on the scale every day helps me look forward to making healthy choices day-to-day, so I can see the impact it has overall.

I’m not saying that you have to create this habit for you, especially if it hinders your progress instead of helps you. I know it helps me and from what I’ve read and experienced, one person’s practice can impact you more than knowing the statistics from hundreds or thousands of people.

Habits & Weight Loss Tips

First of all, to quote Gretchen Rubin in her book Better Than Before I want to decide not to decide – I want it to become a habit to live well and eat right. Secondly, habit tracking has taught me that we manage what we monitor. I know that it works for me. I’ve been able to make and break habits in my day-to-day life.

We Manage What We Monitor - handlettered quote #change #habits #handletter #quote #handlettered

So tracking every food every single day and weighing and recording every morning helps me monitor and keeps my goal top of mind. But all of these things work ONLY if I make it a priority.

A habit will only successfully form if it is given priority while you are developing it. I found a quote a while ago “wherever you are, be ALL there” and I think that this certainly applies.

Decide on your goal, then focus all your efforts to help you achieve that goal. Track the things that you need to track, make the choices that you need to make, every day. Do the hard things every day. Eventually, these choices will sink in, and they will become a habit. That’s the goal for me. Focus until I create habits.

What’s working for me:

What works for me may not work for you, but feel free to take notes and experiment or try it out. I’m sharing because I hope you might find something to help you on your journey, whether it’s losing weight or not.

  • Make your health journey a priority.
  • Make it a project – choose to enjoy it.
  • Don’t try and get away with something.
  • Figure out a suitable compromise (have the eggs, sausage & bacon, but forego the tortilla).
  • Eat the things that give you the most return for your investment.
  • Eat your favorite breakfast, or drink your favorite breakfast shake to start off the day right.
  • Decide if it’s worth it before consuming it.
  • If you overspend for a meal, adjust the rest of your day. Remind yourself: just because one moment is lost doesn’t mean the whole day is shot.
  • Weigh-in every day.
  • Record every meal.
  • Record every snack.
  • Have an incentive to stick with it! Mine is if I cancel before a particular time, I will be charged a fee.
  • Plan meals ahead of time.
  • Get active!
  • Make it your goal, then work like it’s your goal.

Hiding in Plain Sight?

Many of these insights are hiding in plain sight and are quite obvious, but I tend to ignore the simple and look for something more complicated.

Keep in mind that what works for me does not necessarily work for you. You need to find your own motives and regimens that work for you. But finding inspiration from someone else is a fantastic way to start exploring your motivations.

The Most Significant Thing to Make a Difference (Hint – It’s Not the Scale):

I asked myself if I was really ready to make a drastic change – and my inner self agreed that I finally was willing to make fundamental changes without reservation. I’ve tried to follow the same path in the past, but I was never ‘ready,’ never fully committed, always finding a way to ‘cheat’ or get around the rules.

This time, I wanted it to be permanent. I wanted to create a habit in my life and change the way I carried out my life, so that means I needed to change my day-to-day functions, at the core, I needed to create new habits and break old ones. Part of that is tracking every single day and weighing in every morning.

What permanent change do you want to make (and what habit have you been avoiding)?

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Filed Under: Blog, Find Your Happy, Habits, Health Journey Tagged: creating habits, habit books, habit tracking, habits, tracking, weight loss, weight loss journey

I Did It…Or at Least Started – Getting Healthy and Changing Habits

November 15, 2018 8 Comments

Backstory & Disclaimer

Remember a while back when I said my husband was an evil genius? Well, I’m still scared, and he still is a genius. Not that I didn’t want to lose weight, but the whole idea of permanent change scared me. I’d have to give up sweets, treats, soda, all the things I knew I binge-ate and showed on my hips. If you didn’t read the first post, I would recommend it. This is my journey to get healthy and change habits.

Disclaimer: Here’s the deal, I write this for my benefit and accountability. I also write in the hopes that I may help and inspire someone else. I won’t approve comments that trash or are ‘judgy’ to me or anyone else. Fair warning: if you’re here to cause drama, move on. These are my opinions and my thoughts based on my own body and research. Now, as Forrest Gump says: “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Getting Healthy and Changing Habits

I window-shop for a program to help me change my soda-drinking, junk food eating ways. (I say I window-shop because I wasn’t fully committed and casually acknowledged various options.) But I hadn’t decided on a plan because I wanted to make the change permanent. No yo-yoing back to my original size/weight afterward.

I WANT permanent changes, not just a quick fix where I would balloon up again after falling off the proverbial wagon. Years ago, I tried The South Beach Diet, and that had the most profound effect on my body than anything else I’ve tried.

But it didn’t last. Boredom set in with the food. Sweet treats constantly bombarded my thoughts. I never reached Phase 3. Invariably, I started eating the sweets and treats before I was entirely over the cravings and fell back into the sweet-eating consistent consuming pattern.

scale icon tracker for your planner | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #bujo #weightloss #tracker #scale

What Makes this Time Different?

The desire was always there. But not the will to change it forever. Other than that, nothing is different, other than I have studied habits and understand my habits better. In addition to making a drastic change, I work on changing the triggers and patterns behind the behaviors I want to modify. See the list below for books I’ve read this year on habits.

But is the Time Right?

What in the world was I thinking to start a program heading into the holiday season? I was tired of looking/feeling the way I felt. Waiting for the end of the holidays and the start of a new year made me feel sad. I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to have control over the holidays and not be controlled by them.

My friend, Elizabeth, told me about Whole30 and what a difference it made in her mood, her ability to think clearly, and her body. I know it’s not a new program, but I got the book from the library and read it.  It made sense to me. And I love that there is a way to reintroduce foods once you’ve broken the cycle after 30 days.

(To read about Whole30 visit their website: whole30.com). This post is not sponsored in any way, but it is simply my journey to a healthier, happier me. My hopes are that you will research and acknowledge your own habit cycle and make a change according to what you want and feel. If change is what you’re seeking.

Elizabeth was itching for an excuse to jump on the wagon again, so we jumped feet first, together. So with the support of my best friend since junior high (yep, I can say we’ve been friends for most of our lives). I started what I fully intend to be a life-changing endeavor.

A Phrase in the Whole30 Book Impressed Me

While reading the Whole30 book, I came across this paragraph. These words are how I knew it was time for me to make a significant change in my life. It was time to get healthy, make changes, and modify long-standing habits.

“Don’t even consider the possibility of a ‘slip’. Unless you physically trip and your face lands in a box of donuts, there is no ‘slip’. You make a choice to eat something unhealthy. It’s always a choice, so do not phrase it as if you had an accident… Don’t give yourself an excuse to fail before you’ve even started.”

Its always a choice quote | ChocolateMusings.com #quote #weightloss #bulletjournal #handwriting

That paragraph empowered me. I have a choice. After reading Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before and discovering that I am a Questioner tendency, the need for having choices and making choices is a very clear need for me.

For the longest time, I was afraid of losing the markers (again – see original story of why my husband is an evil genius) and worried I would revert to old ways and lose those coveted beauties. (If you’ve ever used the markers, you’ll understand.)

The package is 96 markers plus the desk-stand. Can you imagine earning those lovely markers in 96 shades and then having to give them back because of a poor choice? The thought terrified me. That’s not 50 shades of gray, that’s 96 shades of sad.

Bullet Journal Tracker

I made a tracker in my Bullet Journal to help me visually track my progress. 110 squares for success! I’d figure out what to do with the extra squares later. Maybe a check in every 10 days? It’s kind of like a candy-land game. I sent one to my sister, and she used it in her elementary classroom at school as a reading tracker. I’m very excited to select some shades and fill it in. Find it in my shop!

Gameboard Tracker for Bullet Journals, Planners, & Teachers | ChocolateMusings.com #printable #tracker #game #candyland
  • handmade game board tracker for classrooms, teachers & bullet journals | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #bujo #tracker #gameboard
    Printable Tracker Game Board – Turn anything into a game!
    $6.00
    Select options

It’s a Choice – My Choice

Preparing for dinner today for the kiddos, I licked my finger, and it had something on the ‘no-no’ list. I actually spit it out in the sink and not letting it go any further. Here’s a secret: I’m proud of myself. I took the advice seriously that it was a choice. I told my husband that hypothetically I’d just fallen face-first into a box of donuts and didn’t lick my face.

Do you know what else? Since I’ve taken it to heart that I have a choice, the Halloween candy hasn’t really tempted me. It has a little, but not much. I hope this is life changing for me, just like the woman in the introduction from The Power of Habit (see below) who completely changed every aspect of her life because she modified her habits and rewired her brain.

The biggest thing is, after a week, I haven’t opened the box of markers and picked out the first colors as rewards. Oh, I will…don’t you worry. But the prize has now changed to the accomplishment of setting a goal and altering a habit for the better. The markers are now just a bonus. Fingers crossed I feel like this next week, and the cravings continue to subside.

My Advice?

My recommendation for anyone wanting to make a huge change in their lives? Figure out what your habits are, then study ways to change them. That’s how I did it. It may not work for you, but it’s made all the difference in the world to me. For those of you wondering: I still do the dishes every day.

Here are some books I’ve read on organizing, decluttering, and habits. I’d love a recommendation and add it to my list. Let me know if you have more to add in the comments below.  

 

Whole30 Books

It Starts with Food

Whole30

Whole30 Slow Cooker Recipes

Whole30 Fast & Easy

Turn anything into a game! Tracker Game Board | ChocolateMusings.com #bulletjournal #weightloss #readingchart #chorechart #selfcare

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Filed Under: Blog, Bullet Journal, Find Your Happy, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, Health Journey, Planner Spreads Tagged: goals, habits, healthier, tombow markers, weight loss, weight loss tracker

My Muses #3: Favorite Reasons for Habit Tracking & May Mid-Month Habit Check

May 17, 2018 1 Comment

Favorite Reasons for Habit Tracking, Creating Habits & Favorite Quotes for My Habit Tracker

I’m going to combine two topics this week. Usually, I post a mid-month habit-check for my accountability and hopefully providing a little inspiration for you too! I decided to combine My Muses (favorites) with my habit check this month. Here are a few of my favorite reasons for habit tracking, creating habits, and favorite quotes to use in my habit tracker.

We Manage What We Monitor - handlettered quote #change #habits #handletter #quote #handlettered

-Gretchen Rubin

Why I Track My Habits

Every month I post my progress on forming habits. To date, I think I’ve posted just one true habit success story- “dishes aren’t a dirty word anymore” (FYI, it’s still a success). Other than that at a glance and in comparison to other’s progression, my habits seem to go nowhere.  Just looking at the data, there’s little progression. But that’s not how I see it. I’m still trying, and that makes all the difference. I know I am trying to make a positive change in my life. This is why I track my habits. We manage what we monitor – one of my favorite chapters from Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. To paraphrase: monitoring doesn’t require change but often leads to it.

Forming habits is an ongoing proecess

I know I write a lot about not making improvements or lack of progress, the truth is: creating a habit is hard. If it were easy, there wouldn’t be more than 30,000 books on Amazon with the word ‘habit’ in the title (with more added all the time). I’ve read a few, and many have helped me in my journey here are a few of my favorites:

Other Habits in “the Works”

Right now I am working on decluttering my house using the KonMari method, and if that’s not a change of habits, I don’t know what is. If I don’t change my shopping habits, I could end up where I was before I started. And I never realized how much stuff I have! Getting rid of it is exhilarating and completely exhausting, but what’s more amazing to see the other members of my family follow my lead, that payoff is thrilling.

If habits weren’t hard to create or break, there wouldn’t be a need to track them. (Do a search on Habit Tracking at Pinterest – it’s a fun rabbit hole – I’ve got a board dedicated just to tracking with all kinds of tracking ideas). Round, Square, linear, weekly, box grid, dots, patterns, there’s a lot of variety in tracking methods.

Percentage calculator for monthly habit trackers

Success Rate Percentages

Want to figure percentages in your habit tracker at the end of a month? I’ve done the calculations for you, so you can quickly jot down how you did.

Gretchen Rubin says in her book Better Than Before, “It’s simple to change habits, but it’s not easy”. And I couldn’t agree more!

The principle of getting up at 5:30 in the morning is simple, and the reason is genuine. It’s so I can have some much-needed time to think, write, and read before the chaos of the morning starts, but getting up at the appointed time is difficult. Well, as you can see below (personal #5), I’ve not succeeded in many instances (just once so far this month). I keep it on my habit tracker because I want to form this habit, even though I know I am not ready to commit to the actions needed to create the pattern (yet).

May Habit Tracker split into two columns, one for personal, one for business. One of my favorite reasons for habit tracking - monitoring #habittracker #habits #bulletjournal

creating habits, mid-month habit check, sometimes it's the journey not the speed, favorite reasons for habit tracking

One thing I love on my habit tracker is a good quote. January 2018 featured one of my favorites – Sometimes it’s the Journey, not the speed.

Habit Tracker Quotes

Here are some other great quotes for your habit tracker. I love finding inspirational quotes from Brainy Quote. Goodreads surprised me with a fun quote database. If you’re on twitter, check out @Inspire_us for some great and inspirational quotes, they influence my feed for good.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a snippet of my inspiration my favorite reasons for habit tracking and some resources I enjoy using on a regular basis. If you have any resources you use, drop me a line below in the comments! I’d love to hear about them.

question mark - chocolatemusings.com

Question:

What’s your favorite quote to use in your habit tracker?

plan your life so you live beautifully

~Tricia

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Filed Under: #InMy10Minutes, Blog, Bullet Journal, Get Inspired, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, My Muses (My Favorites & Inspiration), Organization, Plan With Me, Planner Spreads Tagged: favorite things, habit check, habit tracking, habits, monthly habits, my favorites, my muses, Quotes, success story

April Mid-Month Habit Check – Determine your Priorities

April 19, 2018 3 Comments

Is this month headed for another slump? As I was looking at my habit tracker earlier this month, I silently grimaced. It seems as though these supposed life-improvements are not improving anything! My thoughts meandered around this subject as I checked off other tasks through the day. Later that night, I realized something. It’s not earth-shattering, but it could be life-changing. The goal is to make these habits come naturally and automatically, but they don’t at first. They need a conscious effort.

Mid-Month Habit Check - Determine your priorities, flip down, habit by number

Determine Your Priorities

I go throughout my day expecting for these habits to happen (because they’re habits right?) Habits just happen. Well, these are not well-formed habits yet. They are only habit seedlings. Tying back to my word of the year “Grow,” these little seeds need nourishment and given priority. If they don’t get priority, they will get pushed to the way-side and wither. This piece of information was like an entirely new revelation. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?!

In the 365-day project on Skillshare (check out the intro to that class) Cynthia says to get very specific with the time to work on the project. Habits need the same care and planning. The things I practice aren’t going to happen by themselves, and I know as well as anyone, if I leave them to the end of the day, they aren’t getting done.

Ask Every Day:

Every day I ask myself ‘where are your priorities’? Do you want this to really be a habit? As you can see, going to bed and getting up early is not a priority for me this month #5 & #11 and #1 needs work too. But after I shifted my perspective, I started putting more time and effort into making sure I do the other items on my habit tracker. I am nowhere near perfect, but the shift in thinking is substantial.

Determine your priorities: Habit tracking - the shift in perspective that changed everything.

Definitions

There are some habits on my tracker that will never receive a 100% completed mark at the end of the month. Like “not a dollar spent”. I can’t eliminate groceries, gas, and other necessities throughout the month. But I can define it better ‘as no frivolous spending’ or set aside specific days to grocery shop.

There are other habits that are simply not getting priority placement in my day. 8 glasses of water, 7000 steps, in bed by 11 are a few. If I truly want these to become a habit, which is where I don’t have to think about them anymore, then I need to think about them {a lot} to form the habit. They need to sit forefront in my mind and not just exist in my life as something ‘nice to do’. Determine your priorities, do you really want these things on your daily to-do list done? Do you really want to create a habit out of these items? If so, they need a higher priority.

Habit Tracker Idea: Flip-Out Key

Design This Month – Habit by Number

If you’ve been a reader of this blog for a month or more, you should know that I hated March’s layout. For April’s Mid-Month Habit Check, I resumed grid/box layout. But this month I ordered them by number and added a little flip-out key at the bottom. I went through each item and assigned a name and definition to the number. I filled in the obvious ones first, like 8 glasses of water, in bed by 11, and then I matched up numbers with goals. Some are kind of silly or a stretch, but it was fun!

I don’t think I’ve ever posted what all my habits are, sometimes I let you find out on your own if you want. Sometimes I cleverly crop the photo to exclude those habits, but I decided to share them with you, partially so I could explain my method, but partially because I am now more accountable for them because I shared them publicly and with friends. Hold me accountable ok? But be nice about it – life happens. I’d do the same for you.

What DO the Numbers Mean?!

  1. Not 1 dollar spent (the opposite page is a spending tracker – I am excluding all of those things on the spending tracker. If we need gas or if I take the kids to the doctor, I exclude those from my tracking. But if I buy medicine at the store and some other things too, that counts against the tracker!)
  2. 2 Prayers said (personal prayers)
  3. 3 kids need attention (it’s a good thing I don’t have 4 or more, I’d be neglecting at least one each day)
  4. 4 pillows on a made bed – truth be told, we have more pillows than that, but I want a made bed!
  5. 5:30 up – I have a love-hate relationship with mornings. When I’m up, I love them. When I love my bed too much to get up, I hate them.
  6. 6 Dinner ready. This pairs nicely with #1, if I have dinner ready, we will be less likely to go out to eat. The hubby gets home at 6, so it all works out.
  7. 7000+ steps. I know the recommended steps are 10,000, but 10 was already taken and I am building up to a higher number. A month ago, the steps goal was 5,000. So I am doing well!
  8. 8 glasses of water. The best way for me to do this one is to start early in the morning. Get 4 in me before I leave for work then it’s not so daunting.
  9. 9 minutes of reading. I didn’t have something that fit 9. Nine is less than 10, which makes it seem even less overwhelming right?
  10.  In my 10 minutes – give myself credit for the things that I do.
  11.  In bed by 11. I have to chuckle as I look at the clock right now, it is 11:09 pm. Oh, the Irony! If I can make this a more regular habit, #5 will be easier too.

Overall Summary

I LOVE the idea of “Habit by Number” and that may become my new thing. It becomes less overwhelming assigning a number and specifics to the task. The goals are clearer and I can see an end in sight. Numbers add specifics. Changing my perspective and giving priority to these tasks that I hope will become forever part of my life promises to be a phenomenal shift in perspective.

Habit Tracking by Number - with flip down key chart, assign a coordinating number to each of your habits

question mark - chocolatemusings.comQuestion:

When you’ve said ‘I did a thing’ what did you do?

If you’ve bought a traveler’s notebook – where did you find yours?

Remember to plan your life so you live beautifully and don’t be afraid to find your inner muse.

~Tricia

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Filed Under: Blog, Bullet Journal, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, Plan With Me, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, bullet journal trackers, habit by number, habit check, habits, key, monthly habits, plan with me, setting priorities, watercolor

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About Me


Hi! I'm Tricia, the creative behind ChocolateMusings.com, I know how it feels to lose your inner muse. After years of darkness (which I call the dark ages of my life), I found my inner muse hiding in the forgotten corners of my soul, I vowed never to lose sight of her again.

Bullet journaling helped reignite the passion for art and living life again while organizing my days. I also discovered modern calligraphy and watercolor. Since then, my use of the bullet journal system has evlolved and I call it 'creative planning'. Here on the blog, I show you how to use your planner to ignite your inner muse and explore creativity and art while staying beautifully organized and living a joyful life.

I invite you to grab some good chocolate and dive into my musings. Let’s ignite your inner muse.

Read more on the about me page. You can also find my policies and disclosures here.

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