April was a very unusual month for habits, because I was on holiday for most of it. I therefore decided to let go of any goals or expectations for the month.
That said, I still focused on, and tracked three of my habits (3L water, 6.5 hours sleep and 10K steps) whilst I was on holiday. And then when I got back from holiday, I resumed daily tracking of all habits.
Here’s how it looked:
I won’t go into detail for the period whilst I was on holiday – except to say that I was about 50% consistent with 3L water, 6.5 hours sleep and 10K steps. Not bad, given the trip was packed with lots of activities and travelling (pics at the bottom of the post!).
You’ll notice my consistency was pretty sketchy whilst I was recovering from some jet lag – but once I recovered, things picked up nicely (close to normal consistency).
So, what did I learn, if anything?
- Sleep is EVERYTHING. I really wanted to bounce back hard as soon as I got back from holiday. Instead, the jet lag made for a very rough adjustment trying to get back to normal consistency. When you’re under-slept and tired, it’s MUCH harder to be consistent with good habits.
- Assuming you’ve built habits properly, they won’t disappear if you take a bit of time off. Sure, the adjustment back to them is a bit rough and took longer than I expected – but, I have a baseline of discipline, routines and determination that helped me get close to back on track fairly quickly.
So, what are my goals and focuses for May? It’s simple – all eight habits at 80%. My goal will be exactly the same for June and July. I want to see at least another three months of green across the board before I think about anything else.
This won’t be easy. Whilst I’m back on track (ish) now, I’m still feeling a slight effect from having the 20 days off in April. My appetite is a bit all over the place and I’m definitely feeling a bit rusty with my focus and getting back to my routines. Also, my new eighth habit (10K steps) was only tracked as a baseline last month (68%). I’ll need to see a decent improvement to hit 80% for the first time.
So, whilst a bit punchy, I want to go for it. I want 80% across the board for all eight habits, and then the same again for the next two months (and forever).
I’ll wrap up with an overview of my journey since Feb 2022:
It’s been a slow and successful build towards 80% consistency of seven core health habits:
- Feb 2022 > Aug 2022 (7 months) – early stages of figuring things out, lots of reds and oranges
- Sep 2022 > Dec 2022 (4 months) – figuring things out, and getting to 80% consistency on quite a few habits
- Jan 2023 > Mar 2023 (3 months) – reaching my goal of 80% consistency for all seven core health habits.
Now, I have to move into the next phase – proving to myself these seven core health habits are built for life, along with adding 10K steps as an eighth. That’s what May, June and July is for.
I’m ready and more determined than ever. Let’s go!
P.S. As usual. If you’re struggling to establish some discipline and health habits in your life, feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to help.
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