do something every day #1

For the last few months, I have occasionally followed Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project blog.  I have been thinking about coming up with my own happiness project (guidelines on the blog), but I'm not sure I'm organized enough to go whole hog with it.  Instead, I'll just pick and choose some bits from her plan (pick and choose some bits - that's the way I approach a lot of things!).

And one of the bits I've been mulling over is Rubin's strategy to "do something every day."  Now that sounds kinda vague, and possibly overwhelming, but it makes sense.  Basically, she believes it's easier to do something every day than to do it, say, 3 days a week.  Because when we do something every day it becomes habit, but when we do it only some days, we can argue ourselves out of doing it today.  Or we waste energy negotiating about whether today is the day.  Or we just don't get around to it. 

This principle can apply to a lot of things, of course, but there are just few that I want to begin in my own life.  And maybe if I write it down on a blog, I'll be more likely to follow through.  Maybe?  Maybe not, but it's worth a shot! 

But in the interest of not overwhelming myself, I'm going to begin with one every-day-practice at a time, and see if it can become a stuck habit.  Sorta like I tried with reading the book of Mark a while back, but without the pressure to write about it every day. 

So without further ado, Do-Something-Every-Day #1 is...

YOGA!

I'm only a beginner at yoga, and my goal is small (only 20-30 minutes a day), but it's the one exercise-related activity that I seem to be able to do somewhat consistently.  And it definitely makes my body feel better - I don't have back soreness or pain when I'm doing yoga regularly, even just a little yoga.  And it does clear my head and focus my energy for a bit.  I've found that the only time I can manage to do it consistently, though, is early morning before everyone else wakes up.  5:30 to be exact.  This week it seems to be working.  It hasn't even been too hard to get up.  But I know it'll get harder as the weather gets cooler.  And as the days pile up.  But maybe I'll stick with it.  Maybe? 

Full disclosure:  I won't be making this a goal for the weekend, which means I won't actually be doing it every day.  But I'll still be sticking to a certain schedule so there should be no weaseling my way out of yoga on a Tuesday!

I find myself hesitant to publish this post because I feel pretty certain I'm going to fail at this.  But as I read on another blog recently, it can be just as important (if not more) to fail than to succeed.