A short YouTube discussion (Tip #5) from Pure Desire Ministries advising viewers not to be afraid to repeat a chosen commitment across multiple weeks to build momentum and lasting patterns. Speakers (Trevor and another participant) explain that repeating the same small practice for several weeks — e.g., keeping a limbic journal or practicing a brief midday “centering” prayer — allows one to deepen the habit, notice connections between responses, and gradually expand the practice rather than constantly switching to new goals.
Okay, so our fifth tip to making a better commitment to change is don't be afraid to repeat. This might sound a little odd because we just said avoid the one off, but why would we say don't be afraid to repeat? Trevor, what are we talking about here?
Yeah, I think one of the things that. And maybe this is just my personality, but I oftentimes think like, okay, what's the new thing I need to work on this week? What's the next thing? What's the next step in my health? And what I found is that sometimes there's gonna be a 2, 3, 4, 5 week span where I'm working on the same thing. And again, kind of going back to the. Not comparing, even if it's a small thing, continuing to do that. You're creating patterns. So for me, the last couple weeks have been keeping a limbic journal. And I just decided again last night in group, that's what I'm gonna continue to do. And the more that I do this, the actually, so, like writing down when I go limbic, I'm not just doing that this week. I'm building on top of the previous week, where now I'm starting to journal about the connections I see between those responses. So something like that can really create momentum and you can build on top of it and so not. Just don't be afraid to repeat those. And if your group members look at you and like, really, you're doing that again. Look, you know what you need for health and you know that if it's working for you and you want to continue moving forward in this certain habit or pattern, so then go for it.
Yeah, I had an example of this a couple of months ago in my group actually, where my commitment to change was to spend a few moments in the middle of the day doing what I call centering, prayer. Just kind of coming back to God, committing my day to him again. And that week I only remembered to do it like two or three times, but it was so good when I did. So the next week at group, I was like, I feel like I just kind of opened the door to something that could be very good to me. And I don't mean to say that's going to be my new pattern for the rest of my life, but I said, I, I want to do that again because I feel like I could build on it. And so as an example, in one of the weeks, I said, now I'm going to try to do it a couple of times. Once in the middle of the day and once right before I go home just to kind of reset my mind that now I'm leaving work and I'm going to be a dad and a husband. So that's another example where maybe it's not exactly the same, but you feel like you just got started and you want to build on something. And so over a course of weeks, you're seeing it have more and more effect in your life and so don't feel like you have to change to a new thing, just like you said, because it's always got to be new.
