It’s been a hard year and a half for goals! It’s been a hard year and half for everything really, but, you get my point. We’ve been told to cut ourselves slack, which is true, we needed it. We needed a break during the madness so we could properly take care of ourselves during the trying times, but it’s time to break back into the real world and start getting stuff done again.

I use an app that allows me to create daily to do lists, I even paid the extra ten dollars for a lifetime of being able to set reoccurring ones have a few other features. The app is really not that important, but the fact that I’m faced with eight bullet points under the title “habits” is. They are in my face daily. This is just one of the things I’ve tried to do to force myself into good behavior. I’ve also gotten a little help with my diet/active lifestyle by the mere fact that I’m pregnant and know I’m not just doing this for myself anymore. I have to be on top of it. Other than that? A lot of prayer and reflection trying to figure out why I struggle getting certain things going. A few motivational books. And a whole lot of trying to remind myself that I have willpower.

Willpower is a funny thing, I’ve talked about the fact that you have to exercise it to make it stronger before, but it’s also strange how when we tone it down (even for survival mode) it’s very hard to start back up. You read motivational quotes about how you can’t wait for motivation you just have to act on things, and they are right, but it’s much easier said than done. Some things really are a struggle, it brings us back to the truth that we find everywhere from the Bible to psychology text books, we do things we know are bad for us (or don’t do things that are good for us) even though we know we shouldn’t (or should). It sometimes seems like our natural response. Sometimes, I’m pretty sure it is our natural response.

But that’s not an excuse, it’s just one more thing to fight as we work towards self improvement. We have to take responsibility for it regardless. After all, we are the ones failing to act.

I don’t have some deep guarded secret on how to achieve willpower and drive, if I did I’d be much richer. But I do think it’s important to fully lay ourselves bare to ourselves so we can dissect what is triggering what bad habits and work to come up with systems to create good habits.

It’s been simple to shrug off some of the responsibility for our habits when we were just focused on having enough money, supplies, and good health to make it by, but as we emerge from that trial it’s time to really focus on our next one, which is getting ourselves completely under control.

Live a life you are proud of. Be a person you are proud of.