My 5 Habits

I’m going to set up a series of 5 goals that I want to try and make habits to help me become successful. And then each day\week, I will report back with the results. This is hard because how am I to know what things are going to make me successful. I have to just assume that if I take a successful trait or habbit, and implement it into my life, it will help. These have to be doable things: Nothing that is going to be too hard to do. Also, I don’t want to just make up a list of “to do’s,” but things that are going to become habits.

1. Organization – organize my day, office, calendar, office procedures. Then follow it.
2. Be positive – I need to stop using all negative comments about my office, about myself, or anything.
3. Make Notes about my feelings, thoughts, ideas, and inspiration
4. Drink Water – I’m supposed to drink almost a gallon a day for 240 lbs.
5. Develop a hobby – I’m thinking of something involving woodworking. I just inherited a table saw from Jade’s parents. I like to work with wood. I’m sure I can come up with something fun.

First is organization, I would say my Dad is pretty successful, and he tends to be pretty organized. I asked him about it once. He said he didn’t tend to be a very organized person, but when he puts his mind to it, he can be pretty organized. I don’t know what I’m expecting here. I can’t get too complicated or I’ll get discouraged. I mean what is there to get organized about, when it comes to my day. I go to work at 7:30, I try to come home at 12:30 for lunch (sometimes it’s later, sometimes it’s earlier. Then I get back to work by 2:30 (or so depending on when the first patient is scheduled). Then at the end of the day, I come home between 5:00 and 6:00. This is already scheduled for me, I don’t need to do anything with that.

I suppose I should include doing some exercise in my daily routine. Maybe 3 or 4 days a week. My wife keeps getting on my case that I don’t use my bike, and that I should put it away. I enjoy bike riding. Running is really harder and so I probably burn more calories running, but if I make exercise difficult, I probably will get discouraged and stop.

When it comes to exercise, here is a pretty rough cycle for me:
- You eat too much too close to bed time
- You stay up too late (12:00 or 1:00 or later) avoiding a coughing fit.
- You don’t get very good sleep that night
- You don’t feel like getting up and exercising because you’re too tired
- Your late to work, and your work isn’t as effective
- Then you have to get a “pop” and a McDonalds sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle to keep you awake and moving. Yes, I call it a “pop.” That is what it does to me when I drink one… “pop!” I’m awake and alert.
- “Pop” supposedly makes you feel lethargic. It might be all the sugar or all the chemicals in it, I don’t know. I really don’t think I feel like I'm affected that way.
- Then the day doesn’t go very well, and you get discouraged and you know what starts calling your name. So you go out to get another one. Often 2 to 3 pops during the day. they taste good every single time. I just know that it's slowly destroying me.
- The weight gain kills you and the chemicals destroy your body. So you go home and “veg.” I don’t mean ignore your family or do your part in helping around the house. At least what I feel is my part helping around the house. Finally you get the kids to bed, and by the time you have a minute to yourself it’s 10:30 or 11:00 you sit and “veg,” and get some snakes for a while and before you know it, It’s after 12:00.
- Here we go again.

So, organization should probably start with getting to bed on time and getting up on time. To do this I have to be careful to not eat too late and I need to control the amount of pop I’m drinking. I’m wondering if I should include some sort of exercise. This is really stepping it up for me. Exercise is tough for me: Several steps above just going to bed and getting up on time. Maybe if I make a challenge out of it, I might enjoy it more. I know that it is really essential for my well being, but it is very difficult to get into the pattern.

I want to include a few things like reading and playing with the kids. It is important to me to build a relationship with the kids. I shouldn’t ever be too busy to spend time with them. I can realistically say that they are the joy of my life even if they are stinkers periodically during the day. Reading is good for the mind. You need a constant flow of good ideas into your head like a joint needs a constant flow of good fluids to keep it strong and healthy.

I am going to keep my daily organization to the following:
- Get up at 6:00
- Ride my bike for 20 min.
- Eat, get ready for work and leave by 7:00
- Read a good book
- Regular work hours
- Get home by 6:00
- Help out at home, play with the kids a little
- Work on my journaling
- Get in Bed by 10:00
- Read the scriptures
- Asleep by 11:00

I don’t know how close I will be able to keep to this schedule, but I think it’s realistic and do-able. I just have to be careful about changing it. When important things come up I need to really evaluate if they are more important than keeping this schedule. Some people feel like keeping a schedule is too rigid. That’s okay. I think everyone needs to find those few things they are going to change about themselves to try to create a pattern of success. I have seen and read about some very successful people and they all seem to have a certain schedule that they follow to help them have time to achieve certain objectives.

The second habit is to be positive. Wow, this can be tough to constantly be positive. I think that I tend to be positive most of the time. When numbers are low or there is trouble, I have a hard time not showing negativity. But I think that this is essential for creating a good healing environment in my office. My wanting to be constantly positive also includes neutral subjects that can bring negativity into a conversation. This could include things like politics.

The third habit is to make notes about my feelings thoughts and ideas. I like what Bill Esteb said about this. I was asked by a chiropractor what to do to start becoming successful. He felt like he was stuggling to discover himself and his practice:

"I believe that the language we use actually serves to define and create our reality. So, if our unhappy circumstances remain unexpressed as merely vague feelings or formless fear, we remain in bondage and are unable to bring order and meaning to our world. It’s significant that God spoke (language) the world into existence. (Even more significant was that) he tasked us with naming the animals—a way that we could exhibit our dominion over the animal kingdom. Even today, if you want to see a frustrated, powerless medical doctor, present a series of symptoms, which don’t clearly match any named disease! Only when the condition is accurately named, described and articulated in language can you take appropriate action. (It works the same way) with your practice."

"It was Socrates who said that the “an unexamined life isn’t worth living.” My guess is that part of your pain is related to merely going through the motions. That’s the “having-never-found-myself-as-a-chiropractor” part. This creates the lack of passion and joyless existence that I sense you’re experiencing. You lack the rudder; the center core of your practice. Without this critical emotional component, practice becomes a weighty struggle. Something to get through.”

"It’s time to perform a thorough examination—on yourself. A helpful technique is journaling. Spend some time expressing yourself in words, either with pen and paper or on your computer. Explore your reactions to daily situations. Confront yourself. By this process you can bring healing and dominion over your circumstances." I truly believe, if I can keep my feelings and thoughts on track, on paper, I can better evaluate my direction and decisions.

The forth habit is to drink more water. There are a lot of really good reasons to drink water. For me the biggest reason is to just get me to drink less soda pop. I call it “Vitamin P” for Pepsi. I don’t know what that says about me. I think the most agreed on amount is half your weight in ounces. So, I’m 500 – I mean 240 pounds, half my weight is 120 lbs, so that would mean that I need to drink 120 oz of water. Wow! I’m not sure if that is do-able at this point. I struggle with my 32 oz bottle. I a little embarrassed to admit that. That is close to ¼ what I really need. I’m going to compromise and say that I want to drink 2 of my 32oz bottles: One in the morning and one in the afternoon. This way, I feel like I’m pushing myself a little, but not to the point that I give up.

The fifth habit is to develop at hobby. Okay, this one is tough. What do I like doing? I have a hard time often identifying things that I like doing. I am going to put a little stipulation on this. And that is that I need to do something that will help me grow. So, watching movies, which I love to do can’t be included, or going out to eat, which again, I like to do, can’t be included either. I really like to build things. When we buy furniture I like to put it together. I’m not really big into construction type of things, but I have enjoyed working with wood. When I was a kid I built some steps for my parents into the basement. They were pretty simple, but I think they turned out pretty good. Jades parents had a pretty old table saw but in good condition that they gave me. It hasn’t been used in probably 15 to 20 years. With that as a beginning, I’m going to go around to some pawn shops and see if I can get some more – basic woodworking tools that would enable me to do a little more.