Creatures of Habit

• I've been thinking a lot about the things that I do as a habit. In my efforts to become a better me, I've set some goals and tried to make or break habits.
  
  

  It is stupidly difficult!!!

  Making good habits takes a heck of a lot longer than 21 days. Even after months of doing something and failing only occasionally, it is still hard to do it, like it's the first time. Or for stopping a bad habit. Those tendencies, desires, and appetites are still there. Whatever it is, I have to imagine it's worth the effort. Most good things are.
  
  
  Now that I've got that off my chest, I want to talk about accountability. My accountability is usually to myself or to an app on my phone (ironic, when a minor goal is to use my phone less). I will say that it is often better to be accountable to someone else; that feeling of approval (or the fear of disapproval) can be a good motivator. And while I like being accountable to Deity for some goals, it's also really hard to get a report card from God. I usually just give myself an A- and hope I'm right.
  
  When it comes down to it, our accountability to God is all that really matters. He has sent us here to see if we will do the things He wants for us to do. He wants us to become continually better and eventually become like He is. The best thing He did to help us do that is to send His Only Begotten Son to show us the way. 
  
  Though the life of Jesus Christ as a whole shows us a lot of what we should do, it can be very easily summed up in a simple verse that describes all of His childhood/adolescence/young adulthood:
  
  

  And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. - Luke 2:52

  Mentally. Physically. Spiritually. Socially. These four pillars are key to building a well-balanced life. Here are a few of the things I've been doing to improve myself in these four areas. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • I've been doing a low carb diet since February of last year. Turning 29 hit hard and I was feeling a little more adult-y than I had since turning 18. I needed to turn my body into something more than "potato" and start a path of preventing diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and other cardiovascular risks/events. Now that I'm 30, I'm in pretty decent shape just from eating better. But my GOODNESS, are some people hard to be low carb around! Every party and event, every cookout, church meal... carbs, carbs, carbs. I don't need to stay as low as I thought I did, but I am trying to keep it a part of my lifestyle with as few binges as possible. Along with diet goes exercise. This I'm not so good at. You're not going to get me into a gym. I just won't go. I'm not gonna pay money to be shamed or ogled and to do things I'd much rather do in the comfort of my own home, thank you very much. I have made some improvements though. With my Fitbit, I know how much I am (or am not) moving each day. Most of my good days are when I'm a slave to the ER, but I still get a good number of steps in. I also downloaded an app that gives me set exercises and tells me in that oh so super sexy (sarcasm) robotic Google Girl voice, "Congratulations!", when I complete a day. I'm probably not going to get "Six Pack in 30 Days", but it is a step (haha, get it?) in the right direction. I try to play sports more often, too. I'm probably going to go into an arrhythmia or cardiac arrest playing basketball any longer, but I do enjoy tossing a frisbee or hitting a ball over a net (tennis or volleyball).

  

  Here's a screenshot of that "Six Pack in 30 Days" app. I actually completed 30 days in 29 because I didn't know clicking on a rest day would automatically count it. But I did all of that. I'm on to the next 30 days in May.

  
  

  • Now that I'm done (**fingers crossed** haha, yeah, I'm probably gonna end up back in school in the next decade, just you watch me.) with my academic career, I still want to keep my mind active. I do have to keep up a professional license with Continuing Education hours, but I can never restrict myself to only learning about pharmacy for the rest of my life.  I've starting learning Spanish (while trying to keep my Russian up). I use Duolingo, which in some ways is too slow, in others too fast, but it is helping. I am also reading whenever and however (audiobooks) I can. I read mostly fiction but I try to find interesting articles on Facebook or Reddit in science and politics and whatever else catches my eye. Don't get too angry if I end up sharing a lot of things I find interesting.

  

  
  

  

  I completed a streak of 30 days (and it's still going) with Duolingo. Some days it's super easy and I probably don't learn anything. Some days I feel like I'm really improving. But it's the perseverence I feel that really counts.

  
  

  • Socially is probably where I'm always going to struggle. I'm an introvert, through and through. I have my flashes in the pan of extroversion, but it really takes a lot out of me. Does social media count as being social? To get out of my shell I've been striving to go to Church activities even if I don't want to always be part of the crowd. Also other group outings and events because I need to broaden my horizons. Dating has been a challenge since I'm pretty terrible at it and have a not so friendly schedule, but I enjoy good company and I don't think I'm that terrible at being part of a conversation. 

  • I've had my ups and downs in the spiritual side of things. I'm not perfect at saying my prayers or reading my scriptures, but I try. I recently finished reading the Book of Mormon, start to finish, for the who knows how many-eth time. Since I didn't want to do that again, I'm reading the scriptures by topic. I started reading it in Spanish, too, because double dipping is totally allowed. I have my temple goal (one session for every baseball game I attend). To keep the Spirit with me on Sundays I only listen to hymns and other uplifting music in addition to going to extra meetings or choir practice/performances. I need to get better at doing my hom-... ministering.

  
  

  Here are some oddball things that I'm working on. I don't know if they fit specifically into one of the pillars, but I try to keep them up for the sake of improvement.

  • I'm trying to write more. I haven't been keeping a good habit of writing in this blog. Haha, yeah, kind of missed in April. Gotta do better. I also want to follow some of the writing prompts I've saved over time. One day I'll get a whole novel or at least a novella, but you gotta start somewhere.
  • Since getting my piano for Christmas, I want to play it with regularity. Going to practice at least an hour a week. Hymns primarily, but I want to pick back up some of the classical pieces and movie music I have. Additionally, I want to find some baseball rally music (all the things you hear the organist play during the game) so that one day I can embarrass my kids at their ballgames.

  That's probably enough. If any readers have made it this far, congratulations! You don't win anything, just my respect and gratitude. But I do appreciate it. 

  
  

  Keep me accountable for the goals and habits I've mentioned. Ask me about other ones. Tell me how I can help you with yours. We're all in this life together so we might as well be on the same team.
  
  
  I leave you with a familiar quote:

  We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.  - Aristotle