by Kathie England

Better Than Before – Day 29

How a clean slate can help start building new habits

Rubin believes that ANY beginning provides a special opportunity, a clean slate, to start creating new habits. This beginning can take many forms – the New Year and a birthday often provide this fresh perspective to start something new.

Other common opportunities include a change in surroundings (a move or rearranging your furniture) and a major change in life (new job, new school). She also suggests that even a minor change can provide the impetus for a clean slate (she suggests driving a different route to work; I think rearranging the furniture fits better into this category).

“There’s a magic to the beginning of anything” and she urges readers to take advantage of that magic.

We can heighten the sense of possibility to newness by being fully present – seeing “the luxury of untracked snow or a new carton of eggs.”

Another interesting perspective Rubin offers is that clean slate moments are easy to overlook (not being present to the possibilities). We often don’t recognize that a fresh start is triggering a habit change because we overlooked the fresh start.

A clean slate seems to help us launch a new habit with less effort. Rubin encourages readers “to exploit the power of the Strategy of the Clean Slate when it presents itself.”

What if you took advantage of today, Monday, as the beginning of a new week to begin to take steps you’ve put off? What are the possibilities for your first step?

Tomorrow I’ll wrap up the discussion of a clean slate on Day 30 of my quest to develop the habit of blogging.