Finding My Momentum

The Timing of Change

The day I found Atomic Habits at a thrift store for $3 was unremarkable at first glance. But for me, it was exactly the nudge I needed. I didn’t need the book to introduce entirely new ideas — I had already heard about things like habit stacking, tiny wins, and incremental change. What I needed was timing.

Timing has always been the secret rhythm of my life. I can know something, understand it, even want it for years, but until I’m truly ready mentally, nothing sticks. And when I am ready? That’s when my willpower seems almost superhuman.

It’s how I quit sucking my thumb as a child. It’s how I quit smoking after doing it for a decade. And now, it’s how I approached my latest personal challenge: Dry 2025.

Atomic Habits didn’t hand me a magic formula — it gave me a framework and a language for what I had been feeling instinctively all along. Start small. Stack habits. Make the first action easier than the second. These weren’t revolutionary ideas, but they were precisely the cues I needed to structure my mornings, my mindset, and my choices in a way that would actually stick.

This approach isn’t about perfection or extreme discipline. It’s about preparing the stage so that when the timing hits, I’m ready to step onto it fully. And for me, that stage started with small, deliberate actions every morning — a commitment to consistency rather than intensity.

Dry 2025 isn’t just about abstaining from alcohol. It’s a test of focus, self-awareness, and control — a reminder that my choices, even tiny ones, have ripple effects across every part of my life.

Peloton gave me the workouts. Atomic Habits gave me the structure. But the real magic happened when I combined them with readiness — the quiet, often invisible timing of my mind and life aligning just right. And that, more than any workout or book, is what has allowed me to show up for myself in ways I never thought possible.