Habit Stones

After much reading, I stumbled across Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit: why we do what we do in life and business.  This book fascinated me, who knew that most things in life are just habits....that are created without our knowledge?

I already know I am a visual person, if I don't see it... it doesn't exist in my world.  That's why my toothbrush and hairbrush sit out on the counter, so I can see them and say, "Gee, I should do that!"  I started kicking around ideas on how to make habits I wanted to form visual and give myself an easy reward to make the habit stick.

Then, a good friend of mind bought a house.  I was standing in the shower trying to come up with a thoughtful gift when I started to think how lucky she was.  She was in a brand new place with all new surroundings, so the visual stimulus to perform old habits was gone.  She could create all new habits in her home much easier than I could....

Then, it hit me.  Habit Stones.  If she had little jars filled with rocks, she could place these jars near a new habit she wanted to start.  Let's say the backdoor to remind her to water the new flowers she'd planted.  The jars stick out, not in a bad way, but they are different from her back door mat.  Once she sees the jars, it reminds her to water the plants.  Once she waters the plants, she can move one stone into her empty jar.

That little reward of moving the stone, will be enough to help her create a habit that could be in place for the rest of her life.  By the time she moved all the stones (maybe 50 of them) her habit would be set, she wouldn't need to move the stones, she would start to water the plants automatically.

I wanted to share this with the world, my brilliant scheme, so I created a website - habitstones.com where there are directions on how to make your own, or purchase one from me!

Creating new habits is key to improving your life.  What habit would you like to create?!