Giving it up in order to gain

(Last one from me today, I swear.)

I read an article about a woman who decided to give up one thing every month (i.e. coffee, shopping, elevators). She found that it not only saved her money every year, it made her more humble, increasing her appreciation for the things that she does have while decreasing her dependency on others.

Remembering this, I think of Tone Loc's post about how the little things are so hard. It seems to me that an easy way to tackle those little things would be to do it in this manner (work on one thing each week, or each month).

They say that it takes 23 days of doing something in order for it to be a habit. If my math is correct (which it probably isn't), that means you can work on about 16 things in a given year by using this method, whether it's giving up a bad habit or gaining a good one. I don't think it matters so much that you keep doing everything all the time (because nobody is that perfect), but that you give your best efforts to something for a considerable period and hope that it stays in your life. It may not always work, but at least we can rest knowing we are trying to implement positive changes in our lives.