Contrary to popular belief, habits are more
about who you’re being than what you’re doing.
-Jen Sincero, Badass Habits
Do you believe in the power of making your bed? ‘Cuz I do.
I used to be the type of person who didn’t make her bed.
Who didn’t prepare for my auditions, and sometimes flat out forgot about them.
Who was always running late…and occasionally feigned illness to get out of things I really didn’t want to do.
I was a person who HATED routine, and railed against any type of discipline. Discipline was for boring people.
In my mid-twenties, I was the go-out-almost-every-night-of-the-week type person. My dishes were always sitting in a pool of mucky water. My finances were a mess, and my personal life wasn’t much better.
My habits were that of a somewhat irresponsible and unfocused person who knew what she wanted but not how to get there. They weren’t great, to say the least.
Getting a full-time job finally forced me to change all of my habits.
At the time, I was desperate to get out of the financial hole I was in, and this job literally fell into my lap in my darkest hour.
By “darkest hour,” I mean the hour when my bank account had just been hit with five overdraft fees, I was running late for work and then found my car had been towed because of street cleaning, and then the guy that I had been seeing picked me up to go get my car out of impound and broke up with me on the way there. In a heavy downpour. It was a really rough day.
How cinematically perfect for it to be raining super hard on such a terrible day…
The very next day, nothing had changed except that the sun came out, but that was enough to make me feel better. And THEN I got the phone call about the job.
It’s not like things immediately turned around. It took a few months for me to completely stabilize.
But soon after that, my habits started changing:
I started getting up early
I started riding my bike to work
I joined the gym at my new building
I stopped going out on weeknights (mostly)
I stopped eating Mexican food and bar food every night
I started getting my materials ready for auditions ahead of time
I started paying attention to my checking account on a regular basis
I had lots of free time at work (receptionist), so I read a play almost every single day
As a result, I dropped twenty pounds in about two months without trying. And when my clothes literally started falling off me, my bank account was healthy enough that I felt okay going and buying clothes at the Gap instead of at Goodwill.
I still LOVE thrifting for treasures…but it’s nice to know you don’t HAVE to.
The past five years have been even more transformative, as I’ve learned to set goals and actually finish what I start.
This past week I’ve been evolving yet again. This time, I’m trying out an earlier start time again, and I’m testing intermittent fasting.
As Jen Sincero said in her quote above, your habits determine who you are being.
My habits before the pandemic were of someone who was overworked and stressed out, but very physically active. They were also the habits of survival, and of treating myself for having endured each grueling day.
During the pandemic, I’ve developed some new habits…some good, and some not great.
I started blogging weekly!
But I also put on almost 20lbs because I’m no longer walking 8 hours a day at work.
I started taking long walks and swimming laps when weather permits!
But I also drowned my quarantine sorrows in pints of Ben & Jerry’s and bags of Spicy Nacho Doritos and All-Dressed Chips. Oh, and my roommates and I invented “Cheese O’Clock”…which is any damn time you want it to be.
Cheese O’Clock is still allowed…only now it must be between the hours of noon and 8pm and part of a meal.
I’ve been ready for a while to change these bad habits, and start to be the person I want to be.
I want to be a voiceover actor who is awake during business hours (even the morning ones), fully-hydrated, and who eats healthy, keeps physically active and fits into her wardrobe (right now I fit into approximately 10% of what I own).
But habits are hard to change!
New habits I’m trying out:
Getting up earlier: Vacation last week re-set my clock, so now I’m trying to be in bed by midnight and get up by 8am. It’s worked most nights this week.
Intermittent Fasting: I’m doing an 8/16 fast, and that has been pretty painless. I gave myself one cheat night for Saturday with friends, but honestly, I feel worse today after that, so I might be less likely to keep doing that.
Exercising earlier in the day: I’m trying to get out and walk in the morning while I’m fasted. Not only does it distract me if I’m a little hungry before I can eat, but it’s also the time of day when the scorching Georgia heat and oppressive humidity are somewhat less daunting.
Hydration: I have a Hidrate Spark water bottle that tracks how much water I’m drinking, and because of the fasting, I’m finally hitting my water goals more regularly. As a voice actor, I need to be hydrated! A bossy water bottle that lights up with rainbows to remind me to drink is a great tool for this. (That’s the one I have, below…It’s insulated, it tracks my water intake via app, and I can locate it if I lose it!)
Eventually, I want to add in yoga and swimming again, but baby steps. It’s hard to form more than one habit at a time because of the initiation energy it takes to get going.
So, what about you? I shared a lot this week, and I’d love to hear from you.
Who do you want to be, and what habits you think would help you be that person?
P.S. If you haven’t read Jen Sincero’s books, I HIGHLY recommend them.
I just re-listened to You Are a Badass at Making Money (for perhaps the fourth time?) and I re-read all of her books periodically to remind myself of important things.
Get a copy of her new book, Badass Habits, by clicking below or request it on the Libby app from your local library!
Full disclosure: I will get a (tiny) kickback if anyone purchases something from Amazon through these affiliate links, but I will only ever include products here that I can get behind 100%.