Having a habit tracker chart (https://www.morningmotivatedmom.com/free-printable-habit-tracker/ )is changing my life!!!! I have often set goals and have desired to develop habits without much success. I am gaining much progress since I started making it a numbers tracking game (thanks to Jon Acuff’s book, All it Takes is a Goal). I wrote down my 12 desired habits. Some say this is twice as many as I should have but I could not eliminate some. I am making great progress on several but not all. It is almost half way through the month and I have some goals that I have not done once like “write 100” (but taking care of that today) and “15 minutes of core exercises”. A few habits I have only done once or twice like “centering prayer/meditation”, “jumprope for 10 minutes” and “relaxation yoga”. This can help me see that I need to make time for these important things. My month’s priority is self care in this time of greater stress and busyness.

So each month I am tracking these goals. I may ditch a goal the next month but many of them are habits that I want to build into my everyday life eventually. This is my third month of tracking and I am enjoying comparing the month’s totals with the previous month. I created my own spreadsheet(not really, I am so technology challenged so I used a ruler, marker and piece of paper) to track each month’s so I can look back over the year.

It is insanely satisfying to put a tiny check by my habit goal. It is also rewarding to beat my goal. So one of my hopes is to walk a mile a day. I do not shoot for every single day. But if I can check off 10 days out of the month then I feel victorious. So this weekend I went for a walk with a friend and was able to put 3 miles in that little chart square. INSANELY REWARDING!!! I had heard of the goal- “write 100 words” and almost every single time when I sit down to write, so much flows out of me once I start. So I can mark off just 5 days of writing in a month but still have written like 4,000 words on my book manuscript.

I have another goal to read at least 10 minutes a day because books make my heart so very happy. Yesterday I got to work early so I was able to get 10 minutes of reading in. I am trying to keep my kindle or book always in my purse for these unexpected pockets of gifted time.

This tracker is changing my life because I am making significant progress on moving forward in my life in areas to that bring health and joy to my life. These are hopes that have regularly aspired to but just could not seem to gain momentum in. There is something magical about the visual aspect of seeing these checkmarks and numbers.