building this year, including exercise, meditation, reading, drinking enough water, and more. I must admit that keeping up with all of them and checking them off every day is hard and requires a lot of commitment. Sometimes my clients contact me with emergencies or requests that require my attention. Friends and family invite me out for dinner or get-togethers to catch up. There are some days when I’m simply not in the mood; on other days, I just hope to check off one habit on my long list to maintain the streak when all I want to do is go to sleep after a long, tiring day. I’ve been working on a new project recently and have to prioritize that while still maintaining my schedule of practicing Jiu-Jitsu. I haven’t read or meditated for at least two weeks now, so the habit streaks for those are broken and need to restart. The good news is I’ve been keeping up with the blog and my journal, writing at least one blog post per day (even though it’s mostly about Jiu-Jitsu) and my journal entries are getting shorter every day. One of the hardest things I’ve realized when building habits is actually keeping track of them. I have an app on my phone called Habit Tracker that I keep forgetting to check at the end of the day. Maybe the best approach is to try to get through the habit list in the morning.

I’ve been waking up earlier this week and settling into the new schedule, making myself a cup of coffee in the morning (I hope I don’t get hooked on caffeine later; I also need to work on a healthier sleeping schedule). I look forward to running more and starting swimming. Building habits is the best way to build compound interest for self-improvement. I can’t believe I’ve written more than 100 posts on this blog already and have been keeping up with months of writing journals. There are definitely bad days and good days; some habits stick, while others fall off. I must keep on keeping on and try again, never giving up.

I’ll check back with you soon!