The Atomic Habit for My Mobility Challenged Crew

Over the past couple of months I’ve really been trying to get it down to the atomic habit, like the James clear bestseller I read that changed my life. It absolutely made it a more effective way for me to look at how to be affective and less risk for falling or hurting myself or getting fatigued, or all of the above.

As I sit here as the sun comes up, it is the weekend and the gym opens at seven, giving me a little extra time for some shut eye and time to just plain think here in my car, I shift gears from writing a blog post I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks now. It happened because I realized how fluid my processes in the morning getting ready when there is no light in the house, except for the flashlight on my iPhone pointed down at the floor. Yes, down at the floor and not in someone’s sleeping eyes. Remember I am not alone in my house, so I have to be mindful of others who need their sleep just a little later in the day than I do. 

I try to think of myself like a ninja, not wanting to wake anyone who may find out that I am about to escape. Reading the atomic habits, weight, actually that’s not true, I absorbed it through my ears on audiobook. It is one of those books that I am going to invest in for a hardcopy so I can make my notes and see it a little better in my face and make sense of it.

So this morning, I realized how streamlined my processes have been since I break down each step of a process, down to the second. For instance I will explain how I need to take my bottom leg through a process of getting clothed Because I have hip weakness and can’t bend my knee much on my own. It’s not paralyzed by MS, but weakness is certainly there. And more than it used to be, even though my MS is stabilized by Ocrevus IV infusion twice a year.

Step one starts with a toe bridge.  It is a small silicone device that wraps around my toe bridge out under my toes so that my middle toe does not curl and caused me pain in my shoe when walking or on the elliptical repetitively. Just look up tor bridge Image on the web. Enough about that

Step two is put on my right sock over that foot with the toe bridge on it.

Step three, right foot through my underwear. Enough about that. It is what it is. Yes we all wear underwear.

Step for right foot through my spandex pants leg.

Step five. Bright dressed leg in to my sneaker. Make sure my heel cushion is in place first so that it doesn’t slide forward and then I have to take my shoe off again to readjust it. I learned this through trial and error. Taking off a shoe that has a very weak foot is not an easy process. I remember when I used to have to put an AFO in it and stand up on its own. Forget about having a full leg brace.  Especially the 8  pound robotic one.  If any of you have one of these devices,

So now you can envision that I’ve got my right leg through every part of my lower body clothes. It takes me five steps to just put on my lower body clothes.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to look at the very smallest piece of the puzzle of getting dressed every day. Write a list. Figure out what steps can be refined, and do it. Mine took a few weeks, but today I looked down and realized how good I’ve gotten and quick I get out of the bathroom in the morning. And onto my next process of getting my stuff ready in the kitchen for my fuel.

At night there’s a whole other process that involves fuel with getting me ready to be fuel for a two hour stent at the gym every morning. It involves workout drink, and an energy bite that I have made. I take this with me to put on my nightstand at night, for an hour before the gym. This works well for me too and I can’t believe how much energy I have considering I have MS and used to be so fatigued. I really couldn’t exercise for more than a half an hour.

it seems pretty Mundane to break things down to the atomic habit. But it’s these habits that we have to stack together to make it conducive to do the things in order to live. I have the gym, that is my thing.  Maybe yours is getting out to go for a walk. What are all of the steps in the process that makes that matter go for a walk possible.  Where are you doing your walk, where are you getting dressed for your walk, are you upstairs downstairs, are there railings in your house, is there a step down, all of these things have to be broken down to the atomic habit in order for you to see what steps in the process can be tweaked to save you energy and time.

Another example is how I needed to figure out how I would not forget my earbuds and my pre-workout drink to go into the gym. I’m sure you have more specific examples for your own needs, put the energy and time I would have to take to go back to my car after getting set up on a machine, just to get my earbuds that get me in the zone with my hard-core heavy metal or hard rock, was just so frustrating. So I broke down what I needed to do to get ready for my gym experience not all the things I needed just to be dressed, and now I look down at my water with pre-workout drink mix already made the night before, and my box of earbuds charging inside, right next to me on top of my seatbelt buckle. There is no way I’m going to forget this before going into the gym. My iPhone that I am using to write this post is on my lap and will go right next to me. So it shows you that everything that you do can be broken down to the atomic habit. Hi

Energy and time are things that we just cannot get back. I would rather invest my time and energy now to save me more time and energy in little spurts over the long-haul. Because it will also save me a lot of frustration and fatigue. It brings me much happiness and I feel like I’ve conquered a huge hurdle that I can get myself up and ready in the morning, downstairs, to my car, on crutches. And I have a whole other process for my crutch placement with getting there safely. Maybe that will be another post! If you have any questions about how you can find your processes, or something particularly of interest to you, drop me a line below. I’d love to hear it!