No one likes the Spring Forward.
Daylight Saving Time is confusing, its function is hotly debated, our bodies never really adapt, and it’s even been known to cause car accidents.
If you’re struggling through this week, the Spring Forward probably had something to do with it.
But the first week of Daylight Saving Time is a mental game in making new habits. In the weeks leading up to DST, if a person who is accustomed to waking at 6 a.m. decided to change their habits and to start waking at 5 a.m., that person would probably find it incredibly difficult.
How many times have you decided to start waking up earlier, only to oversleep on your very first try?
Habits can be incredibly hard to change, but Daylight Saving Time takes the choice out of our habits. Businesses that opened at 9 a.m. don’t start opening at 10 a.m. so their employees can get another hour of sleep. Rather, society adapts and develops new habits to match the reset clocks.
That person who was struggling to wake an hour earlier is suddenly able to get up without problem because society demands it. In other words, that habit of waking at six is broken and changed in one night.
What new habits do you wish you could develope? Is your environment helping you to change that habit?
Your will to change a habit will never be as strong as the environment, the people, the schedule, and the rules of your life. So how can you situate yourself so that the environment, the people, the schedule, and the rules of your life reinforce, rather than conflict with, your personal changes?
Maybe it requires changing your route to work so you aren’t tempted to stop for donuts. Maybe it requires asking the people in the cubicles around you to lower their voices so you can change your bad habit of getting distracted easily.
Whatever you need to do, if you seriously want to change a habit, you’ll find it a lot easier if the people around you know and support you, and even more so if society as a whole does as well.
How has the Spring Forward affected your week? Hit reply or post in the comment box below and tell me!
As a speaker and author, Curtis Zimmerman has impacted over one million people with his life-changing messages and award-winning programs. Curtis is an expert at transforming organizations by inspiring individuals to live their lives at performance level.
Want to be inspired? Check out his podcast The Next 24 Hours.
