HABITS – Making Good

It is said that up to 50% of all our actions are habits we have formed along the way. The outcomes of your life are simply the result of habits. Habits are God’s way of reducing stress in our life. When we start a new activity in our life, let’s say it is running; it requires a lot of planning, preparation, and perseverance before it becomes an established routine.

Planning – determine a time that works, rearrange your schedule, determine the route.

Preparation – acquire the right shoes, maybe see the doctor for a physical, learn the various warm up and cool down procedures.

Perseverance – put out your running shoes where you will trip over them when you get up, set the alarm for the predetermined time, warm up and get out the door. Repeat step three routinely for the next 21 days, and a habit will begin to form in your life. Do if for 5 months and it will become an entrenched habit. It will be something you do, despite the weather, the activity of the night before, or the hectic schedule of the day. The result will be a reward of feeling great, weight loss or gain depending on one’s physical condition, and better mental acuity. Planning, Preparation and Perseverance are stressful in the beginning of any new activity. Once it is a habit, the stress is gone, we do it without much thought, and the reward is fantastic.

What outcomes do you want to achieve in your life? Consider what habit needs to be formed in your life that will bring about the desired results. Straight A’s on the report card, top employee of the month, happier marriage, can all be achieved without undo stress, simply by developing good habits that will produce the right outcomes.

My running habit illustrates three steps that one must employ to begin the process to successfully achieve a good habit. They are time, place and how. You may have said, “I am going to do…” but you never seem to be able to do “the it”. You may try it for a few days, and then it tapers off to nothing. You feel frustrated, guilty, and defeated. Why not try this. Determine the time (planning) when you are going to start a new habit. Fix the place the new habit takes place (preparation). Establish how you are going to do this new activity (perseverance). Now you will have prepared yourself emotionally and physically for this new activity. Keep the pattern and in a little while, it will be a habit in your life.

If you study the life of Jesus, you will notice that he had a habit of prayer. Mark 1:35 (NIV) Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. What we see is Jesus had the “time”, “place” and the “how” plotted out. As a result, prayer time became a rhythm in his life that produced great outcomes.

This week I will be sharing the steps required to start and maintain good habits in one’s life. This Habit series may just be one of my most important sermon series’ this year. Encourage your friends, family and colleagues to come along to hear practical and doable steps to be that person you always wanted to be, simply by starting good habits in your life.

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday.