It always
astounds me how easily we get into habits. Or the things that can become
habits, even when we are not expecting them to.
Take
writing, for example. I very deliberately developed a habit of writing every
day. I made the decision to write every single day six years ago and I haven’t
looked back. What I didn’t expect was the secondary habit I didn’t even notice
I had until earlier this month.
Once I
finished writing my first book, I set a goal for myself to write a book every
year. I managed it for the first five years, but last year I decided to switch
it up a bit. I wanted to take the year to really focus on building the world I
write in – developing people, places, cultures and maybe writing a few short
stories.
I focused on that for about three
months before I found myself with a book idea I just had to start right away.
So, the new book took on much of my writing time until I had yet another idea.
I focused on the world building around that idea, while still taking some time
to work on the book until I’d developed the idea to the point where I was ready
(and extremely excited) to start the new book.
So, I did
something I promised myself I would never do – I started the new book without
finishing the previous one. What has all this got to do with habits? Well, I’m
getting there.
January
rolled around and during my year of only
world building I had a quarter of a book and a half of a book. However, for the
last five years, January has been the time when I have started work on a new
book. An idea started tugging at my brain – an idea for a book I’ve had for a
while, but now my mind was trying to start writing it even though I have two
unfinished books to complete first.
That’s when
it hit me. I’ve actually developed a habit of starting a new book in January.
It is so ingrained in my brain that it tries to do it whether I want to or not.
Apparently
habits can be built into our systems on an annual calendar. I find it
astounding to think our minds can pick up on something happening with such a
large time gap in the middle and still make a habit out of it.
Now I must
go resist starting a third work in progress.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
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