For most of my life I have never flossed, I would bush my teeth but never floss. Every time I would go to the dentist the dental hygienist would always get on my case.
They would be surprised about how good of shape my teeth were in without flossing, but they would always tell me I needed to floss. I would always make them an empty promise on how I would start flossing and go on about my life.
In June of 2012 I went in for a routine dental exam. I was expecting the usual lecture about flossing, but for some reason this time it stuck and I actually started flossing. Maybe it was because I was getting out of the military soon and would have to pay for dental work myself? Perhaps it was because the hygienist was really cute? Who knows? All I know is that I have flossed every day since then.
The first two weeks was tough. It would take me twenty minutes to floss. I had to figure out how to position my hand in order to floss between my teeth. For whatever reason I kept on going. Before I knew it a month had passed. Then two months. Then six months.
Like clock-work I floss every single day. Now it’s not hard to do it, I’ve gotten into the habit of doing it.
At one of the personal development seminars I attended they talked about the whole it takes 30 days to make a habit. This was nothing new to me, but then they actually talked about the science behind making a habit.
Apparently, when you start to do something new, new neural pathways are created. The more you do this habit, the more developed the pathway becomes. After 21 days the pathway is what they call “soft-wired” into your brain. After 30 days it’s pretty much “hard-wired” and that’s why it’s so easy to do things after those 30 days.
The Trick To Doing Something For 30 Days
When I first started flossing I made a goal of flossing. This next thing is going to seem kind of silly. I posted my flossing goal on my Wealthy Affiliate blog post. I had started posting everyday for a little brief period of time my daily accomplishments.
Quite surprisingly people would reply. If I didn’t write down that I had flossed that day, people would ask me about it. This type of support is really great. When you are trying to form a new habit tell everyone around you. This can help create a positive support network for you.
Another thing I did was changed the time when I flossed. I knew one of the big reasons why I didn’t floss was because I just wanted to go to bed when it was time to go to bed. Flossing just seemed like a big hassle.
As a result, I decided to floss about an hour before I wanted to go to sleep. This worked out really great because I wasn’t in a rush to go to sleep. When you are forming a new habit pick a time to do it that is going to set yourself up for success.
Where Do You Want To Be In 30, 90, 365 Days?
I think it’s important to look into the future and set goals. However it’s equally important to look into the past. For example, over this past year my efforts in internet marketing have been embarrassingly absent. I did do some paid advertising with PlentyofFish from February to April, but after that I didn’t much of anything.
If I had just written one blog post per day last year this blog would have over 365 pieces of content on it. Instead it has less than 20 pieces of content in it. A drastic difference between what I could have done versus what I did.
The difference between the two is simply a habit. A small amount of work done consistently over a long period of time pays off big time.
My goal right now for this year isn’t to make a bunch of money, it’s to form the habit of posting quality content to my websites. If you focus on making money it’s easy to get distracted with the newest craze on how to make money. If you focus on generating content for your websites, then you will always have that content working for you in the future.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments, leave them below. 🙂