I heard a radio interview on NPR a couple of months
ago. Terry Gross was interviewing
Charles Duhigg about his new book, The Power of Habit. You can listen to the interview here.
I was quite intrigued with his description of how habits are
formed. In the beginning, there is a
conscious choice to participate in a certain behavior. But as the behavior is repeated over and
over, it moves from the part of the brain that is responsible for decision
making into another part of the brain – the part that is responsible for things
like breathing and walking and putting on your shoes…. Even driving a certain
route over and over can become a habit – ever driven to work and not remember
how many lights you stopped at? These
habits are usually done exactly the same way every time, like brushing your
teeth or getting dressed. They are woven
into the fabric of our days, often so much that we don’t even think or talk
about them when looking back at our days.
Now I’m sure that your life is like mine. It is filled with good habits and bad
habits. And all of us have changes that
we would like to make in our lives, but when we try to establish these new
habits in the midst of our routines, we find it very difficult to get the hang
of the new thing. But a very funny thing
happens when we go on vacation. We
change everything up. It’s not that we
forget how to drive or make our way to work, it’s that we don’t have to
implement those behaviors in the same way we do in our everyday
environment. His research has shown that
going on or returning from vacation is a great time to kick habits to the curb,
or to begin new habits that you want to become a part of your life.
So why I am I talking about this, you might wonder? Well, I just went on vacation. It was a wonderful, beautiful trip to The
Netherlands and Germany, to see the tulips in Amsterdam and visit our friends
from our previous assignment there. Yes,
it rained most days, and in our five days in Amsterdam I wore my lined raincoat
from morning until night, but we ate great food, saw amazing sights, and share
many laughs with both German and American friends. We wondered before we left whether we would remember
what all the road signs meant, or how to get from place, or how to order in a
restaurant. And it was amazing. Within a few hours, all of the information
that had been locked away for over four years was almost immediately
accessible. In fact, we found ourselves
using our Germany dictionary a lot less than we had before. It just all made sense.
For Christmas I got a new pedometer – a Fitbit Ultra – that
not only tracks my steps, but also the flights of stairs that I climb each
day. And while we were in Amsterdam
there were a couple of days that I walked over 9 miles (for me over 20,000
steps) … and survived! Sure, I was tired
at the end of the day, but a couple of Advil and I was ready to tackle it all
again the next day. So as we started the
process of returning home, I started thinking that if I could walk that many
miles on vacation, there wasn’t any reason not to use my return from vacation
as a motivator for forming a new positive habit.
Our trip home day started early – a 3:30am wakeup to be at
the airport at 5:00am . Several delays
ensued, but we took off at 2:00pm (Central European Time) and arrived in
Baltimore at 4:00pm (Eastern Daylight Time).
A two hour journey to retrieve luggage and travel home… we walked into
our house at 6:00pm. Unpacking suitcases
and sorting laundry helped us make it to 9:30pm – and the magic of being up for
24 hours. We snuggled into our wonderful
bed with its amazing pillows and fell asleep almost instantly.
My husband woke up at 3:30am – I made it to 4:45am. And as he headed off to work about 5:30, I
watched the sky start to get light and remembered that conversation about
making new habits. So I got up, put on
my walking clothes and started trekking around my neighborhood. Thirty minutes later I returned home and felt
good about my day. And every day since,
instead of sleeping in to 7:21 (don’t ask me why that was my body’s programmed
wake up time, it just was), I wake up 6:00am, and I get up and go out for a
walk. On Wednesday when it was
raining, I considered taking the day off, but I was afraid that if I stopped
for even one day, I might not go back out. Yesterday I walked 2.5 miles in 40
minutes and it just felt good. (Just so
you know, my friends Jenn, Katie, Bobbie & Catherine are jumping up and
down for joy because they think I’m only one step away from running!)
So here I am, 10 days into new habit formation... and breaking bad habits: I didn't drink but one Diet Coke while I was gone, so I decided that it would have to go… and I’m good. I am thanking God for a wonderful trip with new sights and sounds, and a time to renew old friendships. But I'm also thankful for this time of resetting my body and my priorities. And now that I have publicly committed to this new endeavor, I hope you'll all keep me honest and encouraged in my journey. And I encourage you to use your time of vacation to think about new habits to form or old habits to break. It's really been a time of revelation.
My new motto: "I am a new creation… God is doing a good work in me."
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Romans 12:1 (The Message)
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