Turning 30 - goals and habits

I have historically had a hard time sticking to things. I have a tendency to pick up a new tool or habit and then just as quickly put it down. One of the things I most admire in my wife is her discipline. She is up at 4:30am most mornings to swim in icy Lake Washington, rain or shine, year-round.

I have been fortunate to have succeeded despite not being a particularly disciplined person, but as I approach 30 I think it’s as good a milestone as any to make a change.

Habits

So I’m going to try and stick with a few simple things - the idea here being that if I can make the habit small and low enough effort that I will do it despite my natural tendencies.

These are:

  1. Exercise daily - Running and biking bring me great joy and tend to make the rest of my day happier and more productive. I’ll aim to do at least 45 minutes of cardio each day in the morning.
  2. 10 minutes of reading daily - I love to read, but don’t spend much dedicated time doing so - I often listen to audiobooks instead. This is fine, but means that I’m spending a lot less time reading non-fiction or technical books than I’d like.
  3. Journal daily - Kelly has been writing in her journal every day for the last 10 years and has a way better memory for the things we’ve done in our lives than I do. As good a time as any to start!
  4. Spend 10 minutes doing something creative each day - I work as a software engineer, so I necessarily spend a lot of my day building things, but very rarely do those things capture my interest deeply. I’m hoping to rebuild my love of coding and creativity by spending a chunk of time doing something explicitly creative.

There are also a few things which I know tend to derail me, which I’m going to actively avoid:

  1. Social media - I can spend many hours a week watching YouTube shorts or Instagram reels - I’ve removed both of these from my phone.
  2. Alcohol - I don’t drink very often, but when I do, even a little, I tend to blow things off the next day.

I’ll aim to check in on these habits every month and post a little update below.