Habits

I read fairly often  Gretchen Rubin's blog which originally centered around happiness but has branched out to other aspects of life. Her newest book Better Than Before discusses the formation and changing of habits. I haven’t read the book yet; the blog posts discuss personality types and how each type is motivated to create and maintain habits differently. It is important to understand one’s self to know how best to approach making changes in habits and routines.

Maybe because I have been focused on the subject of habits via Rubin‘s blog and upcoming book, I picked up on a link in another blog to an article about the poet Mary Oliver and her remarks about habits. I think her remark is profound, but I haven’t yet teased out its importance for me.

“The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us. Our battles with our habits speak of dreams yet to become real.”

I think we all have aspects of our lives we know we should change. These battles may have better outcomes if we understand the nature of habits and how they are tied to our personality type. What are the patterns of my life? In what ways should I change these patterns/habits? I plan to read Rubin’s book eventually; meanwhile, I will do a little introspection to understand what my patterns reveal and my habits measure about me. I took Rubin’s personality quiz and was somewhat surprised by the answer. It is making me rethink my approaches to life, how I see reality and relationships.