Good Habits Help Us Trudge a Little Lighter

We were talking about how we continue trudging through our C-Virus World. The thing about trudging: If you trudge too heavily, you'll hurt yourself.

Anyone who exercises knows that when you overdo it, you get injured. Trudging too heavily on your legs will take out a knee or two, strain a calf or hamstring, even dislocate a hip if you're really stomping around like the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk.

So what to do to keep our necessary trudging at work on the light side? How about good habits?

If you've already got 'em, stick to 'em. If you don't, get 'em.

With all the distractions we brought up last time, we can easily lose focus, even be waylaid by worry. And while some of what's unfolding around us these days may call for a whiff if not a slug of worry, the work still awaits us today. 

Good habits help here. 

Last week's unusual challenges threw me off a bit, when it came to my good habits. So today I'm reminding myself to be vigilant. Those good habits were developed to keep things on track at work. Stick to 'em.

What really suffered was that new "habit" - in development stage - we've talked about. I've been working at it for a couple of months and made reasonable progress. But that developing habit almost fell off the radar last week.

By way of reminder, here it is again:

1. I will always take more time than is necessary to do everything. This is the way to avoid being in a hurry and getting excited.

2. Since I will invariably have more things to do than time in which to do them, and this prospect preoccupies me and gets me all worked up, I will cease to think about all I have to do, and only consider the time I have at my disposal. I will make use of that time, without losing a moment of it, beginning with the most important duties; and as regards those that may or may not get done, I shall not worry about them.

So what happened was this new developing habit got sucker punched and pretty much flattened for a few days. I should have known better. I was like a guy walking around without any awareness of his surroundings. Always a bad idea. And for a city kid, situational awareness is one of the first things you learn if you want to survive the sometimes rough stretches a city like New York goes through from time to time.

What I should have been doing all along was keeping those two steps in front of my face for more than the first few days. You learn something new, but if it's really important - like this new habit will be - you have to reinforce - and continue to reinforce. Learning is one thing. But really important things take more than a couple of passes. 

All the good habits I've developed at work took more than a glancing shot to really drill into my thick skull. This one's going to be no exception.

Frankly, even those long-held good habits need freshening from time to time. 

Take nothing for granted. Review, refresh, revise if you have to, but keep those habits humming. 

Relying on good habits makes that trudge lighter. That's the goal. Stay light on your feet. The world - never mind the flesh and the devil - stands less of a chance to throw you off stride if you do.

With all that, I survived last week's consternation and kerfuffles - just barely at times. Special shout-out to St. Teresa of Avila here. One reason I did ultimately manage to keep my head after some initial dizzyness and spinning were her sage words:

“Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things pass. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. He who has God lacks nothing. God alone is sufficient.”
 

So use those good habits to help you trudge lighter, with St. Teresa as a back-up. Great combination.