September 2015..Day 4 (Falling Into Place) Painting Challenge

Falling Into Place

Day 4 of Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.
It's been fun working with these watercolors and playing with different techniques. Letting go of needing it to look a certain way opens up the possibilities of creating more variation and texture in the surfaces.

Creating New Habits

Staying on Track

It feels great to be making progress on developing new habits (exercising more, eating healthier, carving out more time for doing creative work, better self care, etc), but what can you do to keep yourself on track? When New Year's rolls around, I avoid making annual resolutions. These lists are often too long and are things I THINK I want, rather than what is really important and doable. It gets tough to get everything on the list done and then discouragement can set in and throw everything (including inspiration) off.

Things you can do to stay on track

• Keep going with the micro steps

• Record your progress

• Attach the emerging habit to an existing one. This makes it easier to remember and lets you slide it into a time slot where you can actually do it. The more days you continue in this way, the sooner it will fit seamlessly into your existing routines.

• On accountability..some people like having another person (Accountability Buddy) who will keep them on track. If this works for you, go with it. Have a friend or family member check in with you on your progress. 

• Another option is to be accountable to yourself. I look in the mirror and tell myself ways the new habit will be very useful and helpful to me...and that I can count on myself to follow through.

Tomorrow, what to do when you forget or don't have time to do your new habit.