"You can't throw a habit out the window, you have to walk it gently down the stairs."
- Mark Twain

Well here it is January 1st. I think I have been secretly waiting for the New Year to get back on track. Yes, the holidays got me a little off base. Resistance was tugging fiercely at my sleeves sometimes even tying my arms down. But now it is past Christmas and New Year's Eve so there are no more excuses.

The New Year is a time to take stock of all the bad habits you have acquired over the year or all the good habits you meant to make but really didn't. Most of the time habits are made totally unconsciously over a long time period so it makes sense that breaking a habit is hard and seems to take forever.  Creating good habits has to be done consciously and that makes it seem hard and creep slowly, painfully along - even if its just perception.

Yes, January 1st is here. Its the time to put your money where your mouth is and accomplish all those things you have been meaning to do all year. For me that means blogging more, setting up an email list and Etsy site, eating better, drinking more water and finally starting A Course In Miracles- whew! Those are a lot of good habits to create.

To help me make a serious commitment and start the year off right (because I love goals and resolutions) I signed up for a challenge. During the month of January I will participate in artist Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge. Over the next 30 days I will attempt to paint every single day. Sometimes it will be a complete small painting sometimes it might just mean working on a larger piece. The point is to get in the studio every single day and do something creative. That is a big deal for me! I am the queen of three steps forward and two steps back.

January's goal: Each day I will paint something and do a blog post about it.

Three steps forward and two steps back still makes you one step ahead, right? 30 steps is really going in the right direction. Plus, thirty days just might be long enough to make it a habit I won't abandon by February like the gym or my gluten free diet!

I think Mark Twain might agree, thirty days is long enough to walk a habit safely up the stairs and leave it there.