100 days - habits are the key

March 6, 2020 100 days

Now obviously more than 100 days have passed. About a year ago I published a blog post on this site by daring to take on a challenge I set myself. Basically it was about finally getting new habits into my life, that is, things I wanted to do every day or week. To be honest, no, I didn't manage to get all these things into my daily life during this time. However, these 100 days triggered much more than just a challenge. By dealing with all these things I started much more than I thought. It took me much longer than I thought to integrate these almost banal activities into my routine. And what I mainly learned from this was that change should always happen. I have taken a lot with me from the almost past year.

Here are a few aspects that I have learned about.

Change happens over time

Even if this statement is relatively simple and many people know it, I can now say from my own experience that there is a lot of truth in it. I only now realize how much has changed in my life. It started with the extinguishing of Instagram from my personal life. This was a big step at first, because it gave me a lot of time that I otherwise would have spent with my addiction to social media. One of the activities that probably influenced me the most, although I only now realize the effect, is meditation. I have been meditating every day for almost 3.5 months now and I am slowly noticing the effects. Habits that have such a positive influence only become apparent very late. But that is in a way the beauty of them.

Consistency is Key!

Every day! Every single day you have to do a thing to turn it into a habit. Whether it's brushing your teeth or showering in the morning. It's habits I've had before that I didn't have to think about. So to get an activity into my personal habits, I had to do it every day for a long time. I started with journaling and at some point I managed to make meditation a daily habit as well. I do not manage to do everything every day, but I am working on it.

Why change?

That's a question you must have asked yourself. And I've asked myself that question a lot. Change means shaping something in life. Just trying something different and going somewhere with it. I've become a huge proponent of constant change. After all, life is limited, so why not play around as much as possible with the variables we have at our disposal. Besides, we learn a lot from change. No matter if positive or negative, I was able to take something from everything, which made me stronger and wiser in the next hurdle and experience.

You gotta learn to love the process

Everyday life. It's a horrible situation for many. It is mostly this boring construct that has somehow attached itself to you and you can't get rid of it. Even though there are always these great laces that make you hope that this is no longer boring, most of life consists of everyday life. And guess what. Everyday life consists of your habits. From what you usually do every day. It's a process. While many people hope day in, day out that they will win the lottery or that everything will suddenly change, at some point you have to realize that it just won't happen that way. As long as you do nothing, nothing will happen and your everyday life will not change either. But now it is up to you alone how you shape your live and what you do with this time. Why don't you just learn to love your day-to-day existence? It is the process of life not the end result that leads to a happy life.

One variable can change many

What I didn't consider before, is that not so many habits are necessary, to get my life going. It's just a habit that set everything in motion. I'm talking about journaling. If you take time for your own thoughts every day, a big step has already been taken, which is prevented by many people in today's society with their constant stimulation through social networks and any other things. Thoughts are the good that most people unfortunately don't deal with, but something that can enable incredible things. All successful people you envy, all of them, they had thoughts and somehow dealt with them. If you do not deal with your thoughts, then you just slog away to yourself. This is my view on the issue. So if you only get this one habit into your life, it can cause a chain reaction when you realize how wonderful and fascinating all these constructs in your brain can be.

Failure is a must

Oh, yes, I'm failing. In fact, I dare to go so far as to say that I must fail. Actually, everyone has to fail. You learn the greatest lesson from beating things up. Whatever the field, failure tells you what to do better next time. When I see someone who doesn't fail, I know immediately that in most of the cases this person just does nothing. Sure, then you also do not fail. Unfortunately, most people are afraid of having to get out of their own bubble of well-being and simply fail something. If you overcome this and then continue, then at some point you will get further. To find the bridge to the 100 Days Challenge. It took me months to bring meditation into my day. Quite often I started again, only to stop again two weeks later for all kinds of reasons. And yes, I also once completely wrecked a two-month perfect streak. The important thing is to get up and move on.

It's your own journey

Only you are responsible for yourself and your life. You can lead the ways you want to move into. But this is not possible if you create unnecessary dependencies. Trust me, I have had this several times. Be it that you want to impress others by thinking that you can't do it alone or that you are destroying things. No, it is your own journey and only you control where it goes. If you, as a pilot, are constantly paying attention to what the others behind you say and mean, then you will most likely not make your journey the way you want to. Do not bring change into your life for others, but for yourself. Do not build up habits to impress others, but because it can bring you a better life in the long run. Sure, you should also pay attention to your loved ones, that's not the point. However, not only you profit from a better self, but also the people around you, whom you learn to appreciate even more.

It's all about movement

Once you are on the move, you should make sure you stay on the move. This property of life can be super related back to Newton's law of inertia.

A body remains at rest or in uniform linear motion as long as the sum of the forces acting on it is zero.

We can now relate this to habits. As long as we do not make any effort to get into a habit in our life, no new habit will enter our everyday life. So set yourself in action and start from the beginning. But when we have taken the first step, then you have set something wonderful in motion.

What can you do to start your change?

Start small and don't set yourself too many expectations. For example, you can start by simply writing down at least one sentence a day about your day. It's about the habit, not the content or quantity. If you want to write down more about the day, you can do the same.

I think I have given some food for thought throughout this post. Why don't you write down 5 sentences that come to your mind about this post and write them in the comments below.