Old habits interrupted.................

      Every morning for the past twelve years (well, 345 days out of 365 anyway), I have walked for 45+ minutes down the hill from our house, across the little bridge, around the OSU-N/COTC campus, and back.  

      Apparently, bridges do not live forever, as ours has been taken out of commission for the next "111 days."

Younger Steve would have crossed this anyway

Whatever, walks still need to be walked.   There are more that 40 miles of paved "recreational trails" around here. This morning, my Sweetie and I traveled by car to the original Licking County bike path (+/-3.5 miles between Granville and Newark, initially paved in the mid-1970s.)   It is as pretty as I remember it.

We will try a different path tomorrow.

The process...............

 Why is improvement hard?

Part of the issue is everyone wants to improve, but nobody wants to destroy. Change often requires destruction. Or, at least, unlearning.

Let's call it gentle elimination. You may have to leave little habits, update current beliefs, eliminate comfortable patterns. When you want better outcomes, your daily norms may need to change. The process of improvement is not just about adding things you like.
Sometimes habits and patterns belong to who you were, not who you are trying to be. If you'd like something better, then a routine you are comfortable with may have to die.

-James Clear, from today's effort

Chris Lynch.............

 

........is on a rules and habits kick.  Scroll and enjoy.

one rep........................

 

Some days I nail it, and others I fall short, but the difference now is grace. Growth takes time, and strength—real strength—is built one rep and one meal at a time. This is so frustrating when we are all promised that we can be shredded in twenty-one days.

-Shannon McDonald, from here

For the love of peanut butter...........

 

“Probably my natural attraction to the eternal verities.”

a bad habit...........................

 

 A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.

-Thomas Paine, as culled from his pamphlet, Common Sense

Who's running things......................

 

If you walk down the street and there are a thousand people in the street, all thousand are talking to themselves in their head at any given point.  They're constantly judging everything they see.  They're playing back moves of things that happened to them yesterday.  They're living in fantasy worlds of what's going to happen tomorrow.  They're just pulled out of base reality.  That can be good when you do long-range planning.  It can be good when you solve problems.  It's good for us as survival-and-replication machines.

I think it's actually bad for your happiness.  To me, the mind should be a servant and a tool, not a master.  My monkey mind should not control and drive me 24/7.

I want to break the habit of uncontrolled thinking, which is hard.

-Naval Ravikant

a bad habit.....................

 

The victors of history have a habit of growing complacent at precisely the wrong moment.

-Alexander C. Carp and Nicholas W. Zamiska, The Technological Republic

discipline........................

 

Discipline turns intentions into action.
Discipline means no procrastination.
Discipline means now.
Choose the pain of discipline, not the pain of regret.

An undisciplined moment seems harmless, but they add up to disaster.

Without discipline, the tiny things will be your downfall.

Self-control is always rewarding.

-Derek Sivers, How To Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion

Aging like a fine wine.............

 

Good habits when you’re young are like a bizarre form of time travel. You’re sending little care packages to your future self.
Truth is, no one wants to hear about good habits. They’re not sexy. They’re not even moderately attractive in that “I know you’re bad for me, but I’m drawn to you anyway” kind of way.
-Eric Barker, from this post on aging well

habits...................

 

You need ritual, not inspiration.  Everyday, no matter what, you must practice.  Your practice ritual is your highest priority—an unbreakable commitment.  Stubbornly protect this time against the demands of the world.

-Derek Sivers, How To Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion

a bad habit..............

 

. . . their judgment was based more upon blind wishing that upon any sound prediction; for it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire.

-Thucydides

fancier yarns...........................

 

A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It’s not easy once you’re out of the habit.

-Dashiell Hammett, channeling his inner Nick Charles

A strong foundation................

 

...............................will support a good life.

Speaking of sobriety...............

 If you have a bad habit, replace it with a good habit. Do not try to suppress it entirely. This astute observation echoes a point made by Aristotle himself, more than two millennia ago. It was valid then; it is valid now.

-Stuart Schneiderman, from this post

impact........................

 

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.  The same way money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.  They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous.  It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.

-James Clear, Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

pillars.....................

 Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.

-George Washington, from his 1796 Farewell Address letter

via

Patience Grasshopper...................

 The point is: It always takes longer than you want. So, one of the most important habits is the habit that makes all other habits possible: patience. It doesn’t matter if it’s writing a book, opening a small business, getting in shape, establishing a reading or meditation practice—it always takes longer than you expect. It takes longer than you’re willing to wait. In any case, it takes however long it takes. We want our progress now. We want our success now. We want our rewards now. But if you can practice delayed gratification, if you can understand that all good things take time, that it’s a process, you’re almost always going to be more successful.

-Ryan Holiday, from this blog post

patiently and persistently...............

 For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.

-Bill W.

understand things rightly...............

 Human beings find their fulfillment in mutual love and self-giving, but they get to this point via a long path of self-development, in which imitation, obedience, and self-control are necessary moments. This is not a hard thing to understand once we see the development of personality in the terms suggested by Aristotle. But it is a hard thing to practice.  Nevertheless, when we understand things rightly, we will be motivated to put virtue and good habits back where they belong, at the center of personal life.

-Roger Scruton, On Human Nature