Early to Rise..Its become a habit

I woke up at 4AM this morning, without an alarm clock or wake up call. I've been doing this for about 30 days. Finally I think its becoming a habit. When I awake now I go right into my office. I leave my computer in my office in the evening, so that I have to go to my office (out of bed) when I awaken in the morning. I used to take my computer to bed, which meant that I stayed in bed with it in the morning. Now I am forced to go to my office. My first action is to check my email to see if anything important has come in. I respond to any emails I have to answer. Then I write. Sometimes my writing is focused on the book I'm writing "How to help almost anyone: A psychotherapy Primer" and sometimes on something else; an article, this blog, a letter, notes for my wiki, etc. The point is that I am using the early morning hours for writing. I have been writing every day since 1970, this is a very old and well-established habit. Writing early in the morning is a brand new habit. It far surpasses writing in the evening. Checking my email and writing early in the morning have become my morning scaffold.

I have once again followed David Seah and joined a gym. Its luxurious, and includes a "junior Olympic swimming pool." I am swimming, and suddenly remembering how much I love swimming. As a child I fell in a pool at age 3, and began to swim naturally. Swimming was my favorite activity as a child. I am swimming again, it feels wonderful. However it takes too long to get to the club, work out, and drive home to go every day. I am alternating days in the gym with Kundalini Yoga so I do some physical activity every day. This is the habit I am working on now, for the rest of September and the first half of October. I am doing the Seinfeld trick of marking each day I do my new habit on a calendar, hung up on the bulletin board behind my bed. Tracking progress on a new habit makes it concrete, tangible. Making things tangible is how to make things work. Be concrete about everything you do, and you will make progress.