On Creating Habits

For Cathryn, first of all, these are my thoughts on habits, any habit really, and this is what I do to continue habits (note it's not 100% successful at everything, but I find that it works for me better than anything else).

1. Think about something (i.e. daily scripture study, or journal writing)
2. Decide you want it to be a habit (just decide, it's a very important step though, don't underestimate)
3. Decide that you care so much about making this thing a habit that it is worth going to bed 30 seconds later than you were going to, on a bad day. (Makes it a little less enormous of a thing to do.)
4. Now do that thing everyday.  (Hard part I know.)
1. Oh, but I'm so tired and I need to get up early and blah blah blah blah...my suggestion, read one verse, write one sentence, just do it, for the sake of creating a habit.
2. Hmmm...it's still pretty early and the thought just occurred to me that I haven't read yet and I should probably do that.  (Use willpower and just do.  This will make you so happy when you do.  When you don't, you find yourself in number 1 situations a lot and that just gets obnoxious.)
3. Oh no!  I forgot to read yesterday, my precious habit is destroyed!!!  (Don't fret, just read today.)
4. Make up other situations that I can't think of right now and decide what's appropriate.

So, maybe reading a verse a day isn't the most spiritual thing to do, but when you're starting to make a habit, you could have your 2 to 3 days of reading and 4 to 5 days of just 1 verse.  It will change eventually and it gets easier to remember and your stamina can change from read 1 verse to read 1 page to read 1 chapter or read 1 whatever you study.  You find that the time commitment of scripture study is actually quite minimal.  (It can still be a daily struggle though, it is often for me, especially on routine-free days.)

Other things that can help

• Ryan and I check up on each other's scripture study (and lots of other goals too).  We ask each other if we've read.  We kind of put that expectation on each other.  It works for us.  Might not work for you.
• Something else, couldn't think of anything.