Smart Habit Saturday

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"There is no merit in just thinking about doing something. The result is exactly the same as not thinking about it. It is only doing the thing that counts. I shall acquire the habit of doing what I have in mind to do."

Shiniki Suzuki in Nurtured by Love

I'm still working on what I've nicknamed my Sandwich Habit which surprisingly doesn't involve losing weight or even eating sandwiches. Read my post last week to find out why I'm saving the world, or more specifically myself, one sandwhich at at time.

I'm kind of scared because I wrote a lot of promptings down this last week and I'm wondering how I'm going to accomplish all of them! I'll give you an example of one that I wrote down and was able to act on right away. Stranger and I want our kids to play the piano but neither of us play ourselves. Not very inspiring! I couldn't help but be reminded of this as I was reading Suzuki's book this week.

Here are some things we have done to get inspiring:

• I picked up a stack of classical music cd's to listen to while we do our chores in the morning.


• Stranger dusted his guitar off and has started playing it when he's home.


• I'm practicing the piano for a just a few minutes every day. I did take lessons for a year when Persistence was a baby but I had to quit because all the practicing was causing trouble with my back. I figure five minutes a day won't kill me. Hopefully.


• I got out some note flash cards for Victor to learn. He's been practicing every day, can read and play all the notes and now he's ready to start learning some songs.


• I told him that I will put him in piano lessons as soon as he does learn a couple songs so I guess I need to get busy finding him a teacher.

Persistence isn't ready to learn the notes but she's been playing around on the piano every day too. I'm sure she'll get more and more interested as she watches Victor learn. According to this method of Inspire Not Require Victor will keep practicing all on his own without any pressure from me. The best thing about all of this is it gives the kids one more thing to fight about. "It's my turn to play the piano." "NO, it's MY turn!" "No MINE!!!" I'll let you know if we survive our new music mission.

This is exactly the kind of thing that I would have thought of doing in the past but never followed through with so I'm excited about how my new Sandwich Habit is already changing our lives.

A daily checklist for habits you can edit for yourself - Smart Habits

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