Little By Little : 30 Days Habit Development Challenge — January

There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs. — Zig Ziglar

My 2022 resolution was to develop better daily habits (low-key it’s kind of me doing the “becoming THAT girl” challenge). I picked out a couple of little actions that I want to form into habits in January from a 3-pager brainstorming list.

Each of these actions belonged to 1 or more of the following 3 categories : physical health, mental health, skill-building.

Physical Health

Why am I focusing on this? I love food (including junk food 😋), and am a sweet-toother. However, my family has a history of type II diabetes… and my 2021 glucose fasting result was a lot higher compared to that of 2020…

Yikes, I’m omw to having diabetes as part of my life. -me when I saw my result.

What habits did I want to develop?

1. NOT drinking 4 boba tea per month. Goal is to drop the amount to 0 or 1.
2. Drink chamomile tea everyday (I read that chamomile tea helps with preventing diabetes!)

Chamomile tea by Beverly Johnson

How did it go? Why did it go the way it did?

1. Drank exactly 2 boba tea in January! I would say its a success since I reduced my sugar intake and saved my wallet from $6+ boba tea. Basically tried to prevent myself from spending money so I can get diabetes.
2. YES! This one of the most successful habits I formed in January! I believe it is because this is so easy to do — literally replacing my some of my water intake into chamomile tea. AND it makes me feel that I’m actively doing something to help prevent developing diabetes. Little effort and perceived high reward.

Mental Health

Why am I focusing on this? I am an extremely light and picky sleeper, and I often have trouble falling asleep because of reasons I could have totally avoided. I NEED earplugs and eye-cover to fall asleep. On top of that, I CANNOT eat/drink anything caffeinated after 1pm — hard to do when boba places open at 12pm. I NEED to be doing something relaxing before bed to fall asleep. Watching zombie movies before bed is a huge no no — learned this the hard way. Poor sleep quality would obviously lead to sluggishness for the next day, and this makes me feel very unproductive and bad about myself.

What habits did I want to develop?

Illustration by Genevieve Godbout

1. Read for 30 mins before bed. And it cannot be a sad book that makes me emotional.
2. Documenting little wins during the day.

How did it go? Why did it go the way it did?

1. Couldn’t do this everyday. Occasionally read for 15 mins. Genshin Impact is way more attractive than reading LOL.
2. Couldn’t keep up with this after a couple of days. This is because I didn’t experience an immediate reward for doing this everyday — the impact of this habit accumulates over time and deep down, I wanted to see something immediately. This is definitely one of those habits I want to keep on trying to develop.

Skill-building

Why am I focusing on this? It’s never too early to invest in myself.

What habits did I want to develop?

1. Listen to french podcast to improve French listening skills. Recommending Little Talk in Slow French!
2. Run my Etsy shop.

How did it go? Why did it go the way it did?

1. Nope, did this twice and stopped. I wanted to listen to the podcast while working out… I have trouble focusing on the podcast. I still have not found a time that is suitable to fully focus on the podcast and not feel the urge to do something else.
2. Making sales! I had fun prepping the listings (a lot more work than I originally thought), and learning about Etsy SEO. $$ made from the sales was continuous motivation to run the shop.

Clearly, I did not successfully form all the habits I wanted to form this month. And that is OK, because I had successfully build some habits. Little by little, step by step, I will get there as long as I feel improvement.