I have been consciously focusing on habits recently. Creating new habits and moving some on.

We all have them, some good, some bad, some we are very aware of and some we don’t even realise.

Recently I became aware of one habit I had never noticed before. The Sunday evening blues. Those of you who go to school or work Monday to Friday might know the feeling. You’ve had two days off. And sometime around 5 or 6 pm on Sunday evening the thought creeps into your head. Ergh! Work tomorrow. Bam! The Sunday evening blues have arrived. I don’t know when they started, probably some time during my school years. Ergh! School tomorrow.

But then I remembered. I don’t have work to go to tomorrow. I’m on sabbatical. In fact, Monday is a day to celebrate. The rest of the people in my household are at school or work. I have time to myself. To write. To read. This is good.

I took some time to reflect on this… How often have I got myself into the spiral of negative thoughts by succumbing to the Sunday evening blues? How does this impact my attitude at work? My approach to life? How bad is this habit, that I wasn’t even aware of? This makes biting my nails pale in comparison.

This is one habit that was easy to kick and I will intentionally not pick it up again when I return to work.

I have been following Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits blog. He has some thought provoking ideas on how to make changes in your life.

He suggests making one tiny change at a time. How often have we woken up on January 1 and said OK I’m going to get fit this year? I’m going to lose weight and eat healthy. We go for a run, throw out the chocolate and wine and buy a shopping trolley full of fruit and veg. This lasts a week, a month or so. Then life gets in the way. You have to stay late at work a few nights. You have a big weekend of partying. The weather gets cold. And suddenly you have stopped running, and the cupboard is full of chocolate and wine. And you give up for another year.

Leo’s advice is to start with one small achievable action. Aim to walk twice a week, have wine free weekdays. Just one thing. It will be more achievable. And once you have successfully kicked one habit you are more likely to be successful the next time.

After all, habits such as the Sunday evening blues have likely been with you for a long time.

(Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash)