Habits Pay Off

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”
(James Clear, in Atomic Habits)

If you are trying to build your savings, compound interest is your friend.

If you are trying to reach a goal or simply grow in grace, habits are your friends.

When you think about eating an elephant one bite at a time, habits are a great illustration of “one bite” a day. If you do one thing every day (or every weekday), how much would be accomplished in a month? Or a year? It takes time to build those habits, but the investment pays off immensely in the future.

  • Reading the entire Bible is something many people do every year, but it is done a bit at a time with a reading plan.
  • Decluttering your home may seem overwhelming, but a drawer a week or a room a month makes it happen.

“You get what you repeat.”
(James Clear, in Atomic Habits)

If you want to do something more (like exercise or read), doing that thing 10 minutes a day will add up. After a few months, you will indeed have done something more.

  • Exercising often will increase your health.
  • Reading regularly will make you a reader.
  • A little bit of study every day will allow you to learn.
  • One meal with guests a month, or a quarter, will open up your home and make hospitality what you do.

With repeated small steps, a big change becomes possible.

3 Years in Review

It’s been about three years since this blog began. That’s a little unbelievable. Time flies. Little things add up.

While reviewing the site, several points and trends caught my eye that I thought you might find interesting too. Today we’ll just look at those.

  • The most-viewed post of all time (6 times over the runner-up) is Hospitality vs. Entertainment, from July 2017.
  • That post is also consistently the most popular pin from Pinterest, week after week.
  • The next-most-viewed post of all time is Rejoicing in Relationships, which also ties in nicely with “love your neighbor” and warms my heart.
  • The top ten posts also include Living with Margin, a time management topic that is one of my personal favorites, and An Organized Purse, which shows how much we use those purses.
  • The average views per visitor stays right around 1.5, which means that most people come directly to the post or to the home page and then the post.
  • There have been a total of 33 comments ever on the blog posts themselves. We are not a chatty bunch.
  • The average word count per post is just over 300. Since I aim for 300, that is on point and encouraging.
  • The total word count for all blog posts is 64,720. Wow! Speaking of little things adding up…
  • The most popular hour of the day to visit the site is 10:00 a.m. Not sure what that says, but there you have it.

Well, that’s some highlights for your enjoyment. Thanks for sharing the ride!