Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas or Hanakkah and New Year!

We have been through some things in 2018 that left us wondering what happened. My son and I are just now recovering from a terrible case of bronchitis, and I am thankful to say we are now on the mend.

Hopefully I can soon get back to our normal routine …

And routine is a key word here for me. I think it’s safe to say that whatever I’ve accomplished so far, whether it be potty training, helping my son learn to talk, building my business, or learning to keep my house in order — has largely been due to establishing one new routine at a time.

Learning new routines may seem intimidating to a lot of us.

But it really doesn’t have to be. All it takes is to learn one tiny habit at a time, and doing that consistently from that point on.

I think the best book I’ve read on this subject so far has been The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.

In it he recommends that we avoid attempting large, massive, intimidating changes all at once. If we do that, we’re most likely dooming ourselves to failure.

What Jeff Olson advises is learning one new baby step at a time, and doing that for a while until it becomes a habit.

That one small change won’t seem to make a difference for a while. You might not notice much of any change for weeks.

But added up over time that new habit can create a massive change in your life. Kind of like a snowball effect.

If you can get your hands on a copy of that book or if you can download it to your device and read it, I would highly recommend it.

But if you don’t have time to read it or if, like my older son, you just aren’t into reading, what I have already said about it just about sums up the gist of the book.

Small, baby steps and new routines have been key to just about any success I’ve experienced. And that concept takes just about all the fear and overwhelm out of real change in our lives, don’t you think?

Warm Regards,

Kay Donato

Discover Autism Help, LLC