Day Twenty One - The Power of Habits

For better or for worse, habits can shape our destiny.  We all have habits, good and bad.  Negative habits of the mind, body and spirit are easily formed.  Positive habits of the mind body and soul require great intentionality and persistence.  But once gained, they are like ground that is won forever.

Strong habits will help me break through resistance.  Good habits effortlessly defeat it.

Successful people have great habits.  These habits are rocks in their lives that keep them grounded and anchored.  When things get tough, when things are great, these things keep them grounded.

There is not a saint in the world who did not have a habit of daily prayer.  It’s a really ordinary habit, but when placed in my life as an anchor, it becomes phenomenally powerful.

When starting to assess our lives and character, we often come to some bad habits that we realize must be eliminated.  But the amateur mistake is to focus on that bad habit.  And in many real ways, whatever we focus on tends to grow in our lives.  The more we focus on it, the more obsessed we become about it and the harder and harder it is to get rid of that bad habit.

To get rid of a bad habit, I need to crowd it out of my life by replacing it with something good.  Our lives change when our habits change.

There are a lot of little good habits that are needed to crowd that one big habit out of my life.

To create this ritual, this rhythm, these powerful routines of habit in our lives, over time becomes incredibly powerful.  Habits are like the steady in and out of the ocean, breaking down whatever the rocks and barriers and obstacles are in our lives.

Focus:

Habits – good and bad – have an enormous impact on our lives.

Act:

Write down your three best habits.  Now write down three habits that you need to change.

Pray:

Jesus, I know that every moment is a chance to turn it all around.  Help me to defeat my bad habits and to embrace the habits that lead me to you.

Amen.