Pinpointing our bad habits is easy. We should stop smoking, over-eating, all the seven deadly sins are pretty obvious. Naming a bad habit still doesn’t make it easy to change, but that’s not what concerns me these days.
What concerns me, and challenges me, is too many good habits!
Exercise is a good habit, but the past 2 months is been my only habit. Keeping the house clean is a good habit, but I seem to mostly pick up when I should be writing. Catching up with friends and family is also great, but sometimes I call or text as a stalling technique.
So the challenge for many of us isn’t “should I do something destructive or something productive?” but choosing between good things! The question I try to remember to ask myself is “what is the greater good?” I could argue with myself that running the Mitchell Challenge was one big practice in avoiding my writing.
Last week’s post discussed settling for lesser things, allowing them to clutter up what’s really important to us in our work and personal lives.
This is definitely a challenge. But what struck me is not that we are calling these things bad, but choosing a calling that is greater than the “lesser things”.
If I want to write and speak to others, I should schedule my time first around writing as the greater good, not exercising, cleaning, or scanning the internet. I can even use reading as a way to hide from the written word! All of those things belong, but I have chosen one as the greatest. In some way, you could also say it’s chosen me.
What are the good things in your life that need to be re-prioritized? Is there something good you’re doing as a way to dodge something greater? Let us know in the comments!