Chandika Devālaya
House of Goddess Chandi
(a Lalita Chandika Temple)
Week Three Challenge
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Week Three: Programming Your Habits
Welcome to week three of the Align with the Divine goal setting challenge. Did you create some momentum last week by taking some step-by-step actions? I can't wait to hear of your progress.
Today we’re going to be talking about how to PROGRAM your habits. This is important, for this is how everything becomes second nature to you.
Reflection:
Good news! There are ways you can "hardwire" yourself to achieve your dreams.
In other words, with a little effort you can PROGRAM yourself.
As humans, we are programmed to respond positively to rewards. This is how HABITS are formed. When we receive a reward, we do it again, then we get the reward, and then we do it again.
This can happen for a positive or negative habit so be careful what you program.
On the positive side for example, every day you complete daily sadhana prior to heading off to your work. After the sadhana you feel light and blissful and can recall that feeling throughout the day. This feeling inspires you to do more and more sadhana. Eventually, this GREAT habit gets programmed in and you never miss a day.
On the negative side, some of you may be chocolate fans. You eat chocolate because it tastes good, then you want more, so then you eat more, and suddenly you have a nasty chocolate addiction that is difficult to break.
You should use this REWARD cycle to program AMAZING habits into yourself.
I will tell you a success story of the famous comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. One day Jerry was asked by a young comic how he could become better.
Jerry gave some simple, but profound advice. He advised the comic to write just a few jokes every single day.
Then Jerry revealed his own system for writing a few jokes every day. Jerry's process was to put a large calendar next to his desk and on each day that he wrote a joke, he put a big red “X” on that day.
Then Jerry said, “After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”
Boom! That’s it. Jerry created a simple reward system for himself. He really didn’t want to break the calendar chain and it made him feel really good to see his progress.
You can do something similar. You can create habits that will allow you to fulfill a process which will ultimately allow you to reach your goals.
Habit → Process → Attainment/Victory
So simple. So powerful.
Action:
1) Review the steps you did last week to gather momentum toward your goals. Many of you may have added exercise, sadhana, or financial acumen to your daily routines.
2) Ask yourself, do you like the steps you developed? Are there any other steps you would like to take?
3) Now decide on a few habits that you would like to program into yourself. This could be a continuation of the steps from week two, or perhaps you add to the steps, or even expand on it.
For example, let's say this week you had a goal to exercise 15 minutes per day and now you decide you want this to become a habit, but you want to expand it to 30 minutes per day.
4) Now, just like Jerry did, let's set up a way to document every day. This will increase your confidence and help you feel stronger and stronger every day. You can document on a desk calendar as Jerry did, or an online calendar, but my favorite is an App called FABULOUS. And it is fabulous. I highly recommend it. Here is why:
The FABULOUS app helps in making and improving your day to day life. This app has the capability to make you become that productive person you all have dreamt of and it does it perfectly.
This App provides Science-based Coaching to achieve your goals by instilling healthy habits and routines into your life. It provides step by step programs to guide you. It also allows you to track your progress.
5) Determine a reward, or a positive reinforcement to do every day after you complete your habit. It can be as simple as a long hot shower after a workout, or a few moments of quiet reflection after sadhana. Anything that makes you feel good.
After some time doing this, you’ll automatically associate the pleasure of the reward with the habit.
Soon, you won’t want to break the chain!
Jai Maa!
I look forward to our call on ZOOM tonight, Monday, Align with the Divine Satsangh at 7:00 pm PST. (see link below)
Reminder: Tonight ZOOM call at 7:00 pm PST
Pushpa Saraswati is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Week Three: Align with Divine January 18, 2020
Time: Jan 18, 2021 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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