I have been wanting to practice meditation for the longest time. Periodically, I would subscribe to newsletters, read articles, download apps (I love the Chakra Chime app) watch videos, and get fired up about the benefits. Then I would meditate for one or two days, and then would have a tough day and fall into bed exhausted, meditation forgotten. Having fallen off the bandwagon one day, it was easier to skip it the next day, then meditate the following day, then skip it the next three days, until I wasn’t meditating at all.
I mentioned this difficulty to Corey, a friend, and he recommended a different approach. It has three components:
- A monthly calendar. You can print one out from this site. Write the activity at the top. Put it by your bed.
- A sharpie. Put it by your calendar.
- An agreement with yourself that no matter what, you’ll do what you want to do once a day.
Once you perform the activity, you can put a big fat X on that calendar. I’ll tell you what, once you get four or five Xes, you start to gain some momentum. Even when I’ve had some really long tiring days, I still want to keep the streak going, and the calendar provides that extra bit of motivation to do it.
I don’t know if I’ll continue to meditate once I’m done with the calendar, but at the least this method made it easy to try it out as a habit. If you have a habit you’ve been wanting to try, but haven’t been able to make room in your life for, try Corey’s three step method.
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