21 Days of Paper Clips

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

For a lot of people, myself included, habits aren’t something that we think about on a daily basis. That’s the point. We don’t need to think about our habits. They’re habits.

But habits should be intentional, at least some of them. Habits can function as the framework for our life, relationships, and career trajectory.

In fact, James Clear calls habits “the compound interest of self-improvement.”

Choose your metaphor, but habits are important. Perhaps the most important thing we can cultivate in ourselves.

But if we’re not thinking about them daily, we’re not really developing our habits, we’re simply stumbling into them, the same way most of us decide what brand of toothpaste to buy or what coffee mug we drink out of in the morning. Habits happen almost by accident, simply by letting them develop themselves.

This shouldn’t be the way we think about our habits, because habits can and should be transformational. Habits are the reason Tim Ferriss is Tim Ferriss. They’re the reason Steve Jobs started Apple, and they’re the reason Brene Brown is as well-known as she is.

Habits aren’t just something that should happen on their own, they are something we should develop.

In 21 days.