I’m in my home office. It’s Sunday morning, early. I get up at 5 am.
I am flitting between the kitchen and my office. In the kitchen I have a couple of nice sourdough loaves baked. I have one more plain white loaf to bake and I am waiting for it to prove and stick in the preheated oven.
I am looking out the window and it is a wet, windy, dark, unwelcoming morning. I must go for my run. I do it every day. During the week, when I come home from work. At the weekend I run early in the morning.
It looks like an abysmal, end of the world type of morning. It would be easy to stay here in my office. I have plenty to do.
But habit is my friend and a powerful tool. In the last few years I have discovered the true power of putting habit to positive use. Habit allows me to do what I know I want and need to do, even though it is the hard choice. The difficult option.
Habit helps me. For years, as a heavy smoker habit nearly killed me. But I kicked that habit and developed positive habits.
Now I get up at 5 am every day. And I run every day for around 30 minutes.
It does not matter what the weather is like. I have ran in snow, rain, frost, strong winds, icy cold freezing conditions.
I just do it, though. Because I have made the promise to myself. And habit helps me deliver on that promise to myself.
Habit has also allowed me to lose 3 or 4 stones in weight over the last few years. But that is another story.
Habit can be your inveterate enemy. Or it can be your friend if you truly embrace it and don’t question your decision or commitment, provided you have made a good choice in the first place.
I have decided to look carefully at what I eat and drink. And to go for my run every day. I’m going now. Into the darkness and sideways rain.