So much about my life as a minister and entrepreneur, is about time management. I have people say to me all the time, “Liz, how do you do it all?” Well, the answer is, I don’t do it all in one day. I do everything I do, in segments or time blocking. Now, I am not going to share about “time blocking” I have read and studied some amazing leadership materials on the matter and quite frankly, I feel it is the ONLY way to get things done. For me time blocking started when I was raising a house full of littles. Raising me 3 kids, taught me so much about organizing my day. Maybe, I will do a post about that too (smile).
Currently, I am so stoked about building habits. Recently I read the book “Win the Day” by Mark Batterson. He refers to Habit Stacking, such an amazing method, and proven fruitful in my life. But, I did not get to the Habit Stacking stage until I conquered adding in new habits into my life that would get me to my goals and accomplishments. During the pandemic, I took a Terri Sevelle Foy leadership course (www.terri.com), in it she has a section on developing habits in 30 days. The whole course was amazing, and during the down time of the pandemic I utilized the time to really sharpen myself on some new skills to make me a better leader! After everything opened up, my hubby and I went back to our normal travel schedule. For our ministry side of life, schedules can be somewhat unpredictable. Many aspects of Pastoral Ministry are reactionary, you have hospital visits, funerals and sometimes responses to crisis situations. This has always been something I have worked through, and prayed for lots of Grace too! So, as I pressed on into my next phase of developing habits for 30 day goals, I found it was challenging. I am the kind of person that likes to ‘find a way’. So, I did my own self study on developing habits in 10 Day blocks.
I am a health coach with Optavia, a career that I find very rewarding, I have helped 100’s regain health and loose weight. In our system of health, we develop in the process of our weightloss phase, “Habits of Health”, we are guided to create micro habits, or small steps to eating better, hydrating properly and organizing our life around what matters most. I was so determined to adapt to my new habits I had learned in the leadership course with Terri, that I decided to combine my knowledge of micro habit building and setting a time goal to learn a new habit.
For me, I needed to streamline my morning routine. I had a early wake up time, my morning nutrition was on point, but to really get the edge of being a better leader and entrepreneur I needed to get my healthy movement/exercise, and daily declarations/positive affirmations on point. Before I developed my new habits, I would have coffee, read a devotion, hydrate, eat and then get distracted by a text, phone call or something that caught my attention on social media. Before I knew it, my 6:00 wake up time had suddenly become 8:00am and and I was racing to get ready for the office. Regardless if my day was at our ministry office or my home office, I felt like my morning routine had vanished and time was wasted. So here is what I did.
I decided that I was going to set a 10 Day goal. My first accomplishment would be the exercise. So, I challenged myself, after coffee, devotion, gratitude journaling, hydration and breakfast, I would immediately, get up, put my work out clothes on and head to our upstairs bonus room to do my exercise. Day 1, I did great, Day 2, I did great, Day 3, I had a battle, but pushed through, Day 4, I got a phone call and was delayed, Day 5, I got distracted, but pressed on, Day 6, I left my phone on the kitchen island and went to get ready for my work out, Day 7, repeat, Day 8, repeat, Day 9, we had a family situation, so I was ultimately delayed, but got in half a work out, Day 10, I conquered! The next day, Day 11, I felt amazing, so the following day, started another 10 day block. So let me just shorten the testimonial and say, after two, 10 day blocks, I had developed the habit and to this day, no matter where we have traveled to I am always triggered after my morning coffee, devotion, hydration and breakfast…. My mind says, “Liz, exercise”.
Of course, we also must give ourselves what I like to say, Grace and space. My husband and I attend leadership conferences through out the year, and often travel by airplane. Schedules don’t always mesh for me to do my Peloton workout, hahah. We also, have three adult children, who are married, one grandbabay, and two widow mothers. This is our tribe and sometimes, we are needed, travel for visits or take the grandbaby to our Farm in Central Alabama for a few days. I may not get all my habits in on these occasional schedule changes. But the beauty of the 10 day block taught me that I can do anything for 10 days! And, the when the 10 day block is complete, it is a win! Trust me you will feel so accomplished! So in closing let me share this.
It is a mindset thing. I know the habits I have developed. And just because I have a life event or schedule change does not mean the habit has stopped, the habit has simply paused. The next day, I am back into structure and executing all my routines that are moving the needle in my life to my goals and dreams. Also, I do “habits” all through my day, not just morning. Anything that can repeat daily to help you create that life you are wanting, make it into a habit!
I hope this is encouraging, the 10 day habit creating model is so awesome! I challenge you to start with one, and see just how amazing it is to break down “all the things” in life you need or want to do, into small sections of 10 days to create life long habits!
Big Blessings! ~Liz
"May the God of all hope, fill you.." Romans 15:13 