Day 7: 4 new habits in 28 days - Assumptions

 

The premise of my 28 day challenge is that without sustaining a new habit for 28 days it's far too easy to fall back onto the old habit. In the blog I'm sharing what I'm doing to improve the chances of succeeding at these new habits, and how I manage the challenges and frustrations that come up during the process. 

5 years ago I was told by the surgeon to keep taking the painkillers for my arthritic knees and come back when the pain got too much. It was only then that he would consider giving me new knees (I was too young for them at the time).

Since then I've got used to blaming my mobility, tiredness or pain to my knees. It wasn't until I had a 1:1 yoga session and the teacher saw me doing something that we realised I also had something going on in my hips & buttocks! After some hip mobilisation exercises and sports massage on some lazy glutes some of the 'knee' problem was resolved. Or if not resolved, at least a solution known of how to keep things more in balance on a daily basis. If I do the exercises that is, and one reason that it's a new habit.

How easy is it to think we know the cause of a symptom we have, to then find we've made the wrong assumptions? I'm sure we do it all the time with people too.

Where might you be making assumptions without the accurate data to support those assumptions? How can you verify the assumptions being made, and/or what evidence do you have that your assumptions are not accurate?

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring Change - Inside and Out

You may also like a previous blog post entitled 'judgements are simply assumptions'.

Progress made on day 7:

1. I will consistently eat gluten (and nightshade) free everyday - achieved - thankfully - after the blip yesterday - 6/7
2. I will do my hip mobilisation every day -  achieved 7/7
3. I will drink at least 2 litres of water every day - achieved - I'm certainly finding it easier to achieve and exceed. Travelling next week will be when it becomes more of a challenge 7/7
4. I will do at least one thing differently every day - achieved - I'm still not hoovering which was Day 5's 'do something different' and is making me twitchy !! Today's activity involved watching TV from a different sofa - one that visitors always wonder why I don't use. 

Blog posts of the journey to embed the 4 new habits have so far included - finding the inspiration, vision and goal setting, setting targets, doing things differently, finding support, wavering and commitment.

Anyone with Arthritis may also want to review my Pinterest board with over 150 links on how you might be able to improve living with arthritis. Just for the record - my knees cannot currently take on the position shown in the above picture :-) - although I am liking many of the more athletic pictures I'm choosing for this series of posts. 

Hypertext links in the text above link to previous blogs written on the subject.

#28daychallenge