#5. Developing a Positive Habit

I’m writing in the truck in the middle of the night. I’m determined to keep up my record of writing for at least 10 minutes every day. I’m writing in the truck because I’m visiting family who live hours away. I’m grateful that my husband is driving, because it’s not something I would want to do on my own.

Writing is a new habit for me—a new, nourishing habit—and I really do enjoy it. I’m over halfway through a 28-day writing challenge, and I’m committed. Hats off to  Kevin Partner, author of the Ten Minute Author, and the creator of this challenge. It takes something that could feel ominous and transforms it into something manageable and even fun.

I’ve always wanted to write, but I believed I had to write a lot at once, and that idea made me nervous enough not to start at all. According to the Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Change (https://doi.org/10.4278/0890-1171-12.1.38 ), I was in the Preparation stage: I had the desire and even the tools to begin, but I hadn’t started the activity yet. I had lovely paper, pens, and a comfortable place to write, but I couldn’t move into the next phase: the Action stage.

Now, I’ve been in the Action stage for over two weeks, and I attribute that to Kevin Partner’s 28-day challenge. Most of the time, I write for more than 10 minutes because the ideas come easily. A nourishing habit is being formed.

And that’s how any new habit is created: take the desired behavior and break it into smaller, more manageable steps. For example, you might want to develop a habit of walking for 30 minutes each day, but if you haven’t walked much in years, that goal can feel daunting. Breaking it down into 5- to 10-minute daily walks helps you build strength and get used to walking every day. Over time, you gradually add more minutes until you reach your desired 30-minute duration.

I think this strategy can work for many new habits we want to include in our lives—especially the habit of nourishing ourselves. What is one nourishing habit you would like to try regularly for 5 to 10 minutes?