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This adage from Aristotle gets kicked around a lot. We all want to be Excellent, right? Then again, some of us want to spend a lot of our time watching Star Trek reruns. I have to believe that there is space in my life for both.

At my previous job, I had this quote posted at my desk. I had that job for a long time, so I am not sure when my fascination with habits started, but I began following James Clear and Gretchen Rubin several years ago. I just finished the audiobook of James’s new book Atomic Habits. I plan to put this on my list of books to read/listen to at least once a year. This would put it on par with some of the books that have been most influential in my life. Stay tuned for another post covering that list of books in more detail. (Note to self: link back to this.)

Be Excellent

As the habit gurus explain, if you want to be something, it is a good idea to identify exactly what that something means to you. For the sake of argument, let’s say that I do, in fact, want to be excellent. What will that look like for me?

1. Authenticity – I want to show up as myself – whatever that means today. As discussed in this post where I expressed my desire to embrace inconsistency, my moods tend to change, and I want to be a person who is growing and learning. It is important for me to be able to bring whatever comes up today to the table.
2. Balance – Can we get back to Star Trek reruns now? I need downtime. Much of the advice we get for “how to be excellent” revolves around an endless to-do list. Yes, I have one of these, but I sometimes go several days without looking at it. I recently talked about working with lunar cycles. This is a great tool for recognizing the natural cycles and patterns that take place in our lives. You see, balance is not about being perfectly even-keeled, all day, every day. Balance is about the long view. I try to spend approximately as much time on one end of the spectrum as I do the other… and I try not to get to the extreme ends of that spectrum. Another buzzword for this strategy is Self-Care. More on that below when I get to some actual habits.
3. Connection – Before I joined Bright Line Eating, I did not give this one enough credence. I have some really awesome friends, but I always had a tendency to keep my connections limited. I was “selectively social,” as one personality assessment put it. In the past few years, I have branched out and tried to connect with more people in ways that speak to some of the different areas of my life that need connection and support. This ties closely to points one and two by providing a network full of people ready to give me a boost in whatever direction I need.

Nearly anything that I want to do with my life can be tied back to one of these core values. If it can’t, I will finagle it until it fits or else it probably isn’t important.

Time for Habits

What are the habits I use for my personal brand of Excellence? These are a few of mine, and of course, they are constantly evolving.

Morning Routine

I pride myself on being flexible, easy-going, and not being hooked on consistency. BUT. I do find that my life runs more smoothly when I have a good morning routine. A routine consists of several habits. This is a good place to make use of the Atomic Habits idea of “habit stacking.” You can tie a new habit you want to implement to something you already do. I am an annoying morning person, so my day is front-loaded with many of the things I consider important.

Tracking

I use my Rituals for Living Dreambook and Planner to track my four top priority habits (B,W,M,T.) I also use my Nightly Checklist to track a more extensive list of habits. Let’s start with the Big 4.

B,W,M,T

This is my code that I write along the bottom of my planner to remind me to check off my four primary habits each day: Bright Lines, Writing, Meditation, Tap.

Bright Lines

I am a Bright Lifer. This means I follow the Bright Line Eating plan. I get a check mark in my planner for each day that I follow all four of the Bright Lines: No Sugar, No Flour, Eat only at mealtimes, Eat my planned, weighed, and measured portions.

Writing

Ideally, I would work on my blog every day. That is not always the case. The habit gods tell me it is more important to do something consistently than to do it perfectly, so I try to write something every day. I fall behind even writing a few lines in my Five Year Journal daily. Writing is important to me, so I will keep tracking and working towards that consistency.

Meditation

This is one of my favorite habits, but is also one that is first to slip when life gets crazy. It should be an easy one to keep when I travel, but it tends to slip there too. My husband is used to hearing me do guided meditations from YouTube, but recently I have done more “snooze button” silent meditations. I never actually get back to sleep when I hit snooze, so this is a good chance to get centered and focus on my breath before I ever get out of bed. Nine minutes of meditation counts!

Tap

One of my strategies for dealing with Empty Nest Syndrome was to find things to keep me busy. One day my oldest kid (22) tagged me in a Facebook post from her life-long dance studio. They would be offering an adult tap class on Wednesday nights. Years ago, when I was at the studio with her anyway, I had taken a “moms” hip hop class. I am not a good dancer. However, as previously mentioned, I am an annoying morning person, which also means…. I LOVE TO MAKE NOISE! Tap dancing classes are perfect! Not to mention that my kid could take these classes with me, so it double-bills as Quality Time (her love language,) a chance to grab a midweek meal together after class, and (oh yeah) activity. My kid is a flipping *WIZARD* at tap dancing. She was seriously born to tap. Somehow she was born out of my womb and… I do NOT have the aforementioned mad skills. I suck. So the last of my priority habits is to practice my tap steps every damn day. If I do it for one minute, I give myself credit.

Nightly Checklist

Each of the Big Four are in my Nightly Checklist as well, but this contains several other things. Admittedly, some of these are “nice to have.” I do not expect myself to have 100% on this checklist every day. In fact, I rarely do, but if I want to achieve something, I find that putting it here helps.

• Short inspirational reading
• Meditation
• Read a positive reminder
• Plan tomorrow’s meals
• Post in online support community
• Gratitude Journal (I have multiple locations for this, but only doing this doesn’t get me a check mark for “Writing” above.)
• Track hours slept (not so accurate since my Fitbit died)
• Kept my Bright Lines (individual check boxes)
• Physical therapy exercises
• 5 year journal
• Artist’s Way (I keep falling off this one)
• Morning Pages
• Read a Shakespearean Sonnet
• Write for my blog
• Declutter
• Tap!
• Complete my Nightly Checklist!