When I was a teenager my parents took me to a leadership camp that bored me to death (maybe not literally but as a young teenage girl, sitting in those hard metal folding chairs all afternoon, certainly felt like I was dying a slow death). I remember nothing about the camp other than those hard chairs, a silly song we had to sing together, and this: REPOH. That acronym: Repetition, Easy–easy, Pleasure–pleasure, Often–often, Habit, is one I’ve used daily for the past 20-plus years to help create some of my best habits.
I thought about REPOH yesterday morning as I went for my first run this year. I’ve remained active the past year with spinning and yoga but I can’t remember the last time I actually hit the pavement. My goal yesterday morning was simple: run to the end of the nearby pier and back.
I laced up my running shoes, did a quick stretch and began my 1.5 mile run. I had not even run .1 miles before I had my first indication it might be a challenging trek: my breath. I began inhaling and exhaling short, quick breaths which may be good in the delivery room but is not what you want at the start of a one and a half mile run. As my breath began running faster than my feet, I was reminded of what I learned in that uber boring day camp.
Running -as with everything else in life- is made easier with repetition. Keith and I wake up early every morning to share a cup of coffee and chat about whatever’s on our minds. We know this time of togetherness is important so we’ve made it a habit. In the beginning, it was tough because we have two very different sleep schedules. But we made it a priority and with repetition it became a pleasure and with that pleasure repeated, it became a habit. Now, our days don’t feel right if we don’t begin them together.
Another habit we formed at the offset of our marriage nearly 10 years was saying, ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘I love you,’ regularly. We recognized early on that was important to the both of us. It would be easy to relax on expressing those things after so many years, or sleeping in a little longer rather than rising early to spend time together, but we’ve made them habits by employing the principle of REPOH. We do it because we believe our marriage to be is one of the most important relationships of our lifetime and these things help us keep our friendship ignited. What about you?
QUESTION: What area of your marriage have you employed REPOH over the years that is now paying great dividends?
Until tomorrow…make it a great day!
166. This morning, I was so exhausted from working late the past few nights, so Keith just let me sleep. He gave up his “morning coffee time” with me although we both believe it to be so important.
167. He’s sacrificed so much so I could build my business from home and now we’re both so grateful he did.
168. When I feel overwhelmed or stressed, he just looks at me and said, “Baby, are you stressed?” And with that I just collapse in his arms and know everything will be better by the time I get back up.
169. He never discourages me from dreaming big dreams and reminds me of all the (out of this world) goals I’ve surpassed in the past so I never get discouraged on the way to reaching another.
170. He introduced me to hazelnut Nepresso coffee…my daily morning gift.
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