A seemingly arbitrary period of time, the week has become my standard for marking progress and consistency. Sure, the best of us can possibly execute on all of their ideal habits and goals on a daily basis, but for most I expect this is not always realistic. Holding one’s self to the standard that effectively every day must represent perfection and must contain all of the markings of success is a recipe for failure.
Pushing out objectives to once a month or even every other week, just allows too much void in between visitations which will undoubtedly be filled with alternatives. So then, once a week, what a wonderful cadence to keep something fresh and consistent, but not burdensome. But what am I even talking about doing once a week, why the consternation?
Well perhaps the more salient word from the title is practice. The idea of visiting an activity or skill with some regularity to hopefully become better at it and remain consistent with its execution. As for the activity, well that depends on the person. Having recently read “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, he introduced to me the concept of keystone habits.
These are habits which influence entire patterns of behavior including other habits. He reasons that as you seek to adjust or adopt habits, that you should focus on these more critical ones. After some rumination, I’ve developed a list of my own keystone habits which I’ll offer as examples.
Habit 1: Exercise – Really keeping it weird here I know but this is basically a freebie. I observe that when I exercise at least once a week, my eating choices are more intentional (read responsible) and I’m more self-aware of my physical body. This also boosts my self-confidence, reinforces a positive self-image, and improves my energy. Its obvious these effects will cascade through the rest of my activities and interactions throughout the week paying serious dividends.
My base habit here is a weekly gym session with a friend every Saturday morning. We share similar training goals and mindsets, but also offer objective feedback and suggestions for alternate exercises. No judgement here, just good friendship, feedback, and helping each other advance.
Habit 2: Intellectual discourse – Not something quite as intuitive but obvious in hindsight, it turns out that exercising my mind is a very productive habit! My base habit here is a weekly lunch I hold with a work colleague who is able to offer, and entertain, diverse intellectual thoughts. There are no boundaries, judgement, or agendas to this lunch, it is simply an open forum for us to offer objective counters to each other’s thoughts. This practice has been going for many years at this point and has rarely ventured beyond its current structure. In spite of this seemingly limited scope, we both agree that this relationship offers more value, insight, and utility than nearly any other we maintain.
Habit 3: Learning and presenting information – This is a pretty broad habit, perhaps too broad to be terribly useful for me but I’ll try to offer some context. I am naturally a teacher at heart. I enjoy offering information that may improve someone’s quality of life, their understanding of the world, or just spark a little joy. I also enjoy reading and consuming information through books, blogs, podcasts, and interacting with people. I’ve identified this habit because I’ve noticed I am much more attentive a listener and much more fulfilled when I’ve been able to exemplify this behavior.
My practice here is not quite as defined or regular, but using this guide for myself, I may be able to improve. My objective base habit here would be to finish some portion of a book each week and write some type of helpful content. This habit is less of a concern since my job involves the constant learning and teaching behaviors but I find there is a benefit to carrying that behavior outside of the professional environment towards more meandering thoughts.
Other habits I would like to explore include meditation, yoga, and practicing a foreign language. Maybe these habits could rotate, perhaps I could dedicate say Thursday to the quarter’s habit. The idea would simply be achieving some consistency to introducing variety that otherwise would fall aside. Honestly, you need not limit these behaviors to once per week especially if they increase your quality of life but be mindful of the need to maintain balance in your life.
Take some time to consider your behaviors and activities. When do you feel accomplished and when do you observe yourself naturally making improved choices. Then identify the behaviors which precede your positive outcomes and make those behaviors habitual. Perhaps it’s a more transparent discussion with your partner, then do that weekly. Maybe it’s taking a few hours away from the family for yourself, then make that a weekly practice. The point is, just pick a day and claim it for your benefit.
