Start those new habits now

I wrote the title of this post with another idea in mind, which I’ll get to in a moment, but it reminded me of something else. With the new year coming up, January 1 is a fine time to start a new habit. I wish you well if you do, there’s no reason to wait until then. Start now instead.

I started blogging daily on October 29 a few years ago.

I started regularly exercising 5x/week on May 23 this year.

Both were chosen because it was time to start, not because of some arbitrary date. January 1 might work for you, but don’t wait on it if you don’t have to.

Act As If

This post really comes from an episode of The Long and The Short Of It podcast from a few months back, where they talked about “dressing for the role you want, not the one you have”. In their case, though, it wasn’t about dressing — it was about doing.

Some people think about various life changes they’ll make if something else happens first. In Pete’s words from the podcast:

Too often we put positive habits/positive change behind something that we need to achieve first, like, “I will change, but just first I need to get that role.”

Or, “I will meditate, but first I’ve got to be the CEO of the company, and then I’ll start to meditate.” And it’s like, “You…