May Q&A: Habits vs. Practices

plus an excerpt from Tend to It

You can listen to an audio version of the free preview portion of this newsletter above. Please note that this is unedited and I’m recording in my home office.

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In lieu of a Q&A for May, I’m sharing a special reflection on habits versus practices for paid subscribers. Feel free to send along any questions you’d like me to answer in June!

A couple of weeks ago I did a reading from Tend to It: A Holistic Guide to Intentional Productivity and led a discussion for the Queer Valley Leadership Group via Bloom Local. One of the things we considered was the difference between a practice and a habit. I was intrigued by the way each word felt when we turned it over in our minds and hearts.

When we think of a habit, the difficult process of stopping a bad habit usually comes to mind. Even if we’re talking about building a new good habit, we may still dread the willpower that goes into standardizing a new routine—especially if our new habits may take a lot of energy and time to get going and feel less satisfying than the alternative. This is why I ask my coaching clients to have compassion with themselves when they feel guilty about scrolling social media: life is very hard, and it’s okay if you want to spend a little time listening to cute birds singing songs or watching people decorating cakes (two of my social media go-tos).