Today marks the halfway point of our Back To School Challenge!
And halfway through a semester means…
it’s time for Midterms!
No essays, scantrons, or Quizlet prep here – just a little time to check in and see what’s working and what’s not.
Whether you’ve been steadily adding a new routine each week, just peeking at the posts every few weeks, or somewhere in between, this week is your chance to notice what’s working, what never stuck, and what you want to bring forward as we move into the second half of our challenge.
A quick reminder: small habits stack into big change – but they don’t always (don’t usually?) stick by themselves. Most habits need a reminder, a trigger, or a simpler version to get going and, more importantly, stay going..
This week, we’ll reflect and make one small plan to recapture a routine that matters to you.
This Week’s Steps
What’s working?
Below are our weekly assignments from the first five weeks.
What have you tried? What’s still going strong?
Is there a routine you never quite reached consistency with that you’d like to focus on this week?
- Pick one assignment to make your focus this week.
- Commit to doing it every day.
- Plan ahead a specific time to do it, and tie it to something you already do.
Instead of “I’ll do it sometime before bed,” try:
- “I’ll do it while the coffee brews.”
or
- “I’ll do it right after brushing my teeth.”
Attaching a new habit to something you already do makes it sticky and far more likely to last!
If you’ve been following through on each routine, take a few minutes to think about why it’s working.
Are you stacking the habits with something else?
Are you focused on following through on the commitments you’ve made to yourself?
What’s been working well and how can you use that insight to keep moving forward?
Reflections for Everyone
Take a few minutes this week to reflect and actually write down your answers.
It might help you see how your motivation works and where it doesn’t.
- Which routines (if any) stuck? What felt motivating to keep those going?
- Which routines (if any) fell away? What got in the way?
- What single tiny change could make a routine easier to keep this week?
(a smaller step, a different cue, different timing?)
One essential thought before you dive in:
I have never met a person who is legitimately motivated by shame.
As you reflect on your “whys” and “why nots”, it can be easy to shame spiral into:
“Because I’m lazy.”
“Because I’m a sloppy person.”
There is no room for that kind of talk here, beautiful human!
We all move through seasons where we’re capable of different things – sometimes day by day or even hour by hour.
Different things pull on our attention, our energy, and our time. We have different capacity in different seasons of life.
The routines we talk about here are designed to ease you toward a calmer life, but they do take investment, and sometimes, we just don’t have the capital to invest in new habits.
Let this reflection time encourage you to notice where you’re showing up and where you might need a little grace for yourself.
You got this!!! (And I got you.) 💛
Uncovering Real 