One of the exciting parts of our journey is the opportunity that it affords to evaluate our current habits, break the bad ones and start new ones. As we did with our possessions, we were forced to shed most of our habits and routines, taking only those that are most critical and important, and hopefully breaking the worst ones.
Unfortunately, this also meant giving up many things that would not mesh with our new lifestyle, even if we would choose to continue doing them if we could.
What this results in, is a clean slate of sorts. The challenge is how to choose what to fill this slate. We all have a latent group of things that we would like to do, if only we could find the time. We want to exercise more, eat better, read more, learn more, exercise our creativity more, etc. But, even with this new clean slate we can't possibly fit everything in, especially if we want to turn these things into new habits or routines, which requires real dedication to ingrain.
So, how to prioritize? Should we focus on improving our health through exercise and better eating? Should we focus on improving our minds through reading the stacks of books that have been piling up or taking those courses that we've always wanted to take? Should we improve our careers by building those networks that we always wanted to build or by undertaking those projects that we could never seem to fit in before? Should we focus on experiencing new things and places? Or, should we start by focusing on retaining those things that we had that we are now worried about losing - friends, activities that we enjoy, etc.
It is a real blessing to have the opportunity to remake substantially how we spend our time and to create a new lifestyle that we think will make us better, happier people. But, boy is it stressful too! We've got to balance constant self-improvement with the need to not mess with a good thing.
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