Time. It’s a fleeting thing really. Something that there just never seems to be enough of.  You can’t replace it once it’s passed by.

At the beginning of a new year, we often make resolutions or want to try new things.  Sometimes, though, we decide that we just can’t because we don’t have enough time.  Here’s the thing – very often we don’t need a lot of time.  We just need to commit a moment here or there to begin practicing a new habit.

So the question is:

Can you find a few moments each day to practice a new habit?

This is something that I’m thinking about as we roll into 2013.  I’m thinking about it for a bunch of reasons – work, family, life and for me.  Yes for me.  I would like to go through the year feeling that I’m less stretched, more thoughtful and increasingly more centred within myself.  I know that creating new habits is a good way to support all of this.

Last year I decided that I would participate in #12er (started by Jacq) for as many months of the year as I could.

It works like this:
Pick one thing to do consistently every day for a month. It can be something new you want to try, something you want to get better at or something you want to see if you can live without. Commit to doing this thing every day for that month no matter what, even when you don’t want to, even when it hurts, even when it sucks. The practice is the reward. Once the month is up, you’ll start your next thing. You may or may not want to continue the previous month’s practice longer if it’s working for you, however, you still need to introduce something new for the new month.

I found that I was fairly successful for much of the time and found that it impacted my approach to a lot of things. I practiced writing, generosity, less procrastination and a number of other things.  So…when 2012 was ending I took note on Twitter that a few of the original folks who were part of#12er were still around and wanting to continue for 2013.

So there you have it. The habit I’m going to practice in January is to eat breakfast daily and to also spend some time being quiet each morning.  I have decided that I’m going to this with the help of the 21 Day Meditation Challenge (not an affiliate link) as I think that it will make it easier for me to focus my mind on finding quiet with a little guidance.  I’m also trying not to jump onto social media before I do these two things.  Not always easy, but important I think.

As you can see from above, there are various kinds of habits to practice.  You can eat fruit daily, you can schedule and plan or you can choose to jump off social media for 30 days.  All great choices.  Really, you can do anything you want.  The point is to choose something that you want to practice, make a few moments for it and begin. Last year @Omaniblog shared a lot of ideas on Audioboo about the habits he was practising.  For January of 2013 he has announced that he is going to read a poem a day in support of our friend AJ Leon.

Periodically I will provide updates here on the blog about the ways that practising habits are impacting my work and my life in 2013.  I will also try and share some experiences from the broader #12er community as I think you might find that to be interesting too.

If you have a habit that you would like to practice for 2013 please join us.  You can connect with the community on Twitter with the hashtag #12er