If you're like us, every so often you like to take stock of your habits and rituals: the things you do first thing in the morning before you meet the world, throughout your day, at the end of the day as you tuck in or whenever a particular situation arises in your life.
Maybe it's because something's working, maybe it's because something really isn't, perhaps you want more of a return on investment of your time and energy or just to try something new. All excellent reasons to review your daily, weekly, monthly actions.
At this point, you naturally start assessing the quality and outcomes of the things you do intentionally (rituals) and unintentionally (habits) or want to do and you probably start by asking yourself these questions;
What is my goal with them?
Am I doing too much or too little in a particular area?
Are my actions a compilation of things that serve my higher self? (Your higher self being the version you're working on maintaining or becoming)
And then you might ask:
How can I make sure everything is perfectly coordinated and aligned, with the right amount attention and detail?
But that last check off, often feels impossible to achieve right? At least all the time anyway… and this is where I tell you, it's not that your commitment to the cause is sloppy, and it is more than okay to decide and allow for some things to take a backseat temporarily, for priorities to switch up, to turn away from anything that's ultimately a distraction, to fill 50% of your day with good deeds without aiming for 100% all the time and still maintain solid momentum in the right direction.
A habit or ritual has to mean more to you than just something you think you should be doing, or have the discipline to do. If you're going to the effort of repeating any type of action or behaviour you want to ensure it's serving you well, after all this is a "review" not a personal beat up about how you can squeeze more more more out of yourself because if we know anything, consistency looks a lot more like intentionally moving (albeit not always smoothly) in the direction of your dreams instead of constantly checking and making sure the journey is perfect.
Just like Simon Sinek (and many other greats will echo): “Consistency becomes more important than intensity.”
Intensity doesn't always promote enjoyment or alignment - it can be a false sense of satisfaction. It's not always where strength of character, resilience or clarification of purpose is typically built and sustained, but it's often where burn out occurs.
Sometimes you need less intensity and more consistency to allow your alignment to develop just as your ideas do. That's where true reflection can occur in the moment and where you can surrender to the notion that your best work today is just the beginning of what you'll one day find you're capable of, and likewise what you pour everything into today could become just a fraction of what you decide you really want to dive into.
So, create your habits and design your rituals with intention, to add to the quality of your life (where you are and where you're going) but be flexible in your approach; reassess them regularly across your professional and personal pursuits, understand how you want to feel and behave, drop the illusion of perfect execution and soon you'll see all your 1-10 percenters transpire into something really special.
This is your bright life.
Dana