Why Habits Matter
Habits can be bad. They can also be good. You might think of a Habit as simply, "something you do frequently", but it is much more than that.
A habit is an action that someone takes in response to something else. It's like a routine, except it always has a consistent cause or trigger. Think of a habit like an automated program that your brain runs in response to a certain event, action, or cause.
You feel an itch? Scratch it. Your heart rate increases? Breathe faster. You're bored? Reach for your phone... wait.... maybe that's something we should change...
If you live with a family that eats dinner together every night at the table, you'll probably run a habit-program that is triggered by the smell of your parent's cooking when it is near five o'clock. You smell the food cooking. Your stomach responds by growling. The stomach's response is a biological habit. Then you might instinctively know that it's time to get up, go wash your hands, and head to the dinner table to help set the table. This is a well-formed habit.
More complex habits can be formed or broken if you find the trigger or cause. What's the first intentional action you think about when you wake in the morning? My guess is one of your first thoughts is related to food or drink. Maybe it's a beverage, or what you'd like to eat for breakfast. Maybe it's a habit you've already formed to go brush your teeth. Some habits are formed out of duty or necessity. We don't feel particularly strong about them, but they must happen. Other habits might be formed negatively, and are a source of repeated shame and guilt. Finding those triggers is extremely valuable.
We believe that God designed us to be habitual beings, not so we could fall into repeated failures, but so that we could allow our Christ-centered identity to form our habits. We can learn how to make daily time with God a habit - the kind of habit that, if for some reason we don't do it, we instinctively know that something isn't right. This doesn't mean reading the Bible will be boring, ritualistic, and lack meaning. It certainly CAN be that, but it's up to you, the reader, to keep your heart and mind engaged. But throughout history, Christians have kept up Spiritual habits by repeating a process. We can and should do the same!
Knowing how habits work can help us establish new, healthy habits, that will improve ourselves and our lives, while also helping us identify bad habits, learn what creates and causes them, and stop them.
Using proven concepts discussed in Atomic Habits, author James Clear gives us some really useful strategies:
1. A system that is in place will bring about your goal - not the other way around. Focus on a system that will define what you do.
2. If you want to start a new habit, it must posess 4 qualities. It must be: Obvious, Attractive, Easy, and Satisfying. Find a way to make reading your Bible these four things, and your chances of success will be much higher.
3. Embrace your Christ-identity. "I am someone who spends time with God every day." Believe that, and you'll find the actions that follow are more natural.
4. Make reading the Bible follow another habit you already have that is daily and consistent (yes, even if that habit is one of those biological habits). Example: "Every time I go to eat Breakfast, I will read for two minutes, and pray for two minutes."
5. Be SPECIFIC. A goal that doesn't have when and where laid out clearly is much more likely to fail. Instead of "I'll read a few verses at some point tomorrow, if i have time," you should say, "Tomorrow, at 7am, I will read John 1:1-8, and pray for two minutes."
6. Fix your environment. This is sometimes called "staging". Put your Bible somewhere visible and easy to access. Likewise, put obvious distractions somewhere invisible and difficult to access. Think of it as the equivalent of laying out your clothes for the day the night before.
7. Identify things that add steps, effort, or friction to the thing you want to do - and eliminate them, if you can. Think of it like water: Water always flows along the path of least resistance. If you make positive habits this way, you'll do them more consistently.
8. Build in a reward. If you read with breakfast, you could do it this way: After getting your food ready, read your Bible and pray BEFORE you eat. Then, eating will serve as a reward.
9. Track your progress. This isn't for shame. It's for the opposite: You are creating visible indications that you ARE becoming the person you've already decided that you are: Someone who spends daily time with God.
10. You're going to have misses. That's not a huge deal. But make sure you don't miss twice in a row.
11. Small, continuous improvement should be sustained and protected. Always have something to build on!
12. Have accountability.
13. Don't try to make every study perfect. The habit being established firmly will give you the space to improve it!
14. Make it work for you!
A habit is an action that someone takes in response to something else. It's like a routine, except it always has a consistent cause or trigger. Think of a habit like an automated program that your brain runs in response to a certain event, action, or cause.
You feel an itch? Scratch it. Your heart rate increases? Breathe faster. You're bored? Reach for your phone... wait.... maybe that's something we should change...
If you live with a family that eats dinner together every night at the table, you'll probably run a habit-program that is triggered by the smell of your parent's cooking when it is near five o'clock. You smell the food cooking. Your stomach responds by growling. The stomach's response is a biological habit. Then you might instinctively know that it's time to get up, go wash your hands, and head to the dinner table to help set the table. This is a well-formed habit.
More complex habits can be formed or broken if you find the trigger or cause. What's the first intentional action you think about when you wake in the morning? My guess is one of your first thoughts is related to food or drink. Maybe it's a beverage, or what you'd like to eat for breakfast. Maybe it's a habit you've already formed to go brush your teeth. Some habits are formed out of duty or necessity. We don't feel particularly strong about them, but they must happen. Other habits might be formed negatively, and are a source of repeated shame and guilt. Finding those triggers is extremely valuable.
We believe that God designed us to be habitual beings, not so we could fall into repeated failures, but so that we could allow our Christ-centered identity to form our habits. We can learn how to make daily time with God a habit - the kind of habit that, if for some reason we don't do it, we instinctively know that something isn't right. This doesn't mean reading the Bible will be boring, ritualistic, and lack meaning. It certainly CAN be that, but it's up to you, the reader, to keep your heart and mind engaged. But throughout history, Christians have kept up Spiritual habits by repeating a process. We can and should do the same!
Knowing how habits work can help us establish new, healthy habits, that will improve ourselves and our lives, while also helping us identify bad habits, learn what creates and causes them, and stop them.
Using proven concepts discussed in Atomic Habits, author James Clear gives us some really useful strategies:
1. A system that is in place will bring about your goal - not the other way around. Focus on a system that will define what you do.
2. If you want to start a new habit, it must posess 4 qualities. It must be: Obvious, Attractive, Easy, and Satisfying. Find a way to make reading your Bible these four things, and your chances of success will be much higher.
3. Embrace your Christ-identity. "I am someone who spends time with God every day." Believe that, and you'll find the actions that follow are more natural.
4. Make reading the Bible follow another habit you already have that is daily and consistent (yes, even if that habit is one of those biological habits). Example: "Every time I go to eat Breakfast, I will read for two minutes, and pray for two minutes."
5. Be SPECIFIC. A goal that doesn't have when and where laid out clearly is much more likely to fail. Instead of "I'll read a few verses at some point tomorrow, if i have time," you should say, "Tomorrow, at 7am, I will read John 1:1-8, and pray for two minutes."
6. Fix your environment. This is sometimes called "staging". Put your Bible somewhere visible and easy to access. Likewise, put obvious distractions somewhere invisible and difficult to access. Think of it as the equivalent of laying out your clothes for the day the night before.
7. Identify things that add steps, effort, or friction to the thing you want to do - and eliminate them, if you can. Think of it like water: Water always flows along the path of least resistance. If you make positive habits this way, you'll do them more consistently.
8. Build in a reward. If you read with breakfast, you could do it this way: After getting your food ready, read your Bible and pray BEFORE you eat. Then, eating will serve as a reward.
9. Track your progress. This isn't for shame. It's for the opposite: You are creating visible indications that you ARE becoming the person you've already decided that you are: Someone who spends daily time with God.
10. You're going to have misses. That's not a huge deal. But make sure you don't miss twice in a row.
11. Small, continuous improvement should be sustained and protected. Always have something to build on!
12. Have accountability.
13. Don't try to make every study perfect. The habit being established firmly will give you the space to improve it!
14. Make it work for you!