What are your habits?

.:HAULT!:. If you are a first time reader - please read my "I'm starting a blog...say wha?!" post for some background on my blogging philosophy :)

This week, in my leadership class I teach, the students are delivering presentations on "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens". If you have never read this book, or any of the "habits" books, I highly suggest you think about picking one up. The teen version literally changed my way of thinking and life pretty much, as a young adult. It lays it out straight - do x,y,z and you will find success. I love when life comes with instructions - it's awesome!

There is a version of the "habits" entitled "7 Habits of Highly Effective Families" and for the next couple of blogs, I'd like to take you through my journey of my husband and I reading this...together. Ha! This will be interesting for sure :)

So, we starting reading this together before my little Princess (she's 6 months old tomorrow ::tear:: actually, I'm really not that sad about this milestone - I'm actually really glad lol. 6 months old is a glorious age...the screaming fits have diminished, no more nursing (praise The Lord - for real...), all I have to do is look at her funny and she laughs and giggles. 6 months - that's where it's at, I'm telling ya!)

...was born and we made it through the first two habits (throw us a partay - we rock!). Embarrassing, I know. Anyways, in doing this lesson with my students, I've been thinking introspectively about carrying this over to my own life - imagine that, actually practice what I preach?!

I love the "habits" concepts because of what "habit" actually means. The first poem in the teen version explains this quite clearly...

The Habit Poem:

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

Half of the things you do you might as well turn over to me and I will do them - quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed - you must be firm with me.

Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of great people, and alas, of all failures as well.

Those who are great, I have made great.

Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine though

I work with the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a person.

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin - it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet.

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?

I am Habit.

It's totally true. The things we do day after day, time after time - our habits - completely make up who we are. Whether they're good habits or bad habits, they are apart of us and they are things that we do without thinking about them. For example, it is a habit of mine to hold open doors - like for an obnoxious amount of time. I hold open doors for guys, girls, children, whoever. It is a habit of mine to say bless you - even when I'm in a lecture hall or conference full of hundreds of people. It is also a habit of mine to lean entirely too much on what other people think of me - I worry so much about how others perceive me and my actions that it sometimes inhibits me from doing something I know is right. This blog for example, I have analyzed every word over and over again in my head wondering "what if __________ saw this, would they think less of me?" When really, I should just take comfort in the fact that I am doing something for me. The glorious thing about habits, however, is that they too are changeable. We control our habits. End. Of. Story. This leads me into another thought...

I keep coming back to this vital question in a lot of aspects of my life - when did doing what you are "supposed" to be doing or just enough become "good" and acceptable? Friends, family, job, school, parenting - when did it become acceptable for simply being in the same room as someone count as "spending time together", when did standing in front of a classroom reading straight from a power point you did nothing to create become "your part of the project", when did it become ok to guarantee your buddy a job, even though they may not be qualified and many others are, why can't we just tell people the truth about themselves, plain and simple without all the wrath that comes with it, when did the television become the babysitter, when did a "good" friend become the person who messages you the most on Facebook and why on earth is it now considered "good" and acceptable to "just be that way"? Where's the "go above and beyond", where's the "time is too precious to waste"? (I have soooo many thoughts on the time issue - especially after reading the first book club book. Can't wait to share it with you once we talk about it in "M" club ☺)

The first habit in the "habit" books I have read addresses this question in a lot of ways... "Be Proactive." It's my favorite habit, so much so that I am going to re-read it and share with you my thoughts...come back and check it out :)

Y'all come back now, ya hear?! (Mayyyyybe. Not.)