The Habit of Writing

The book, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, talks about the process in our brain that helps create a habit. Duhigg explains the Habit Loop, where first there is a cue or a trigger that tells your brain what to do. Then there is the routine which then leads to the reward. If you want to change a habit, you have to change the routine.

When I was in my early 20s, I went on a lot of blind dates. I always said that I was going to write a book, and after the 10th blind date I thought I would call my book 30 before 30, as I was sure I would go on 30 blind dates before I was 30 years old. Well, when my friends said they wanted to introduce me to blind date #17 at a Polka Dance…. How could I say no as that would be a hilarious chapter in my book. Well, not only did it make a great chapter - but it changed the title of my book, as blind date #17 was the last blind date when he proposed 6 weeks after we met!

I still wanted to write a book someday about my crazy blind dates…. but I never did anything about it. Then I got cancer and I knew that my someday might be shorter than others, so I took a writing class. Still I never did anything about it, until I joined the Mastermind class in August and changed my routine. I went from talking about writing a book - to practicing writing every day, because I’m never going to write a book if I don’t write.

I’m thankful for the support of the Mastermind, and also for the support of Steve as he knows I have a lot of stories to tell…. Once I started practicing writing, Steve asked me who I was going to have play him when my book became a movie…. That support from Steve is a Reward worth changing a routine for! Today I wrote with pen and paper a lot of random ideas floating around in my head… but I still wanted to blog, so that on October 31st, I can say I practiced writing every day and that it has become a new habit for me. And maybe in November we can practice the Power of Habit with diet and exercise…