With so many things to do during the day and only 24 hours, it can be hard to fit everything in, especially when it comes to prioritizing prayer amidst the other demands of life. Creating habit systems is a crucial part of building your day to include the most important parts.
The book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear took the world by storm in 2018 with promises to teach people a way to build powerful systems and transform their lives. The cover of the book says “An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones.”
While the book’s main focus is to help create a more productive life, it also contains a key concept adaptable to a life with God. The idea of habit stacking isn’t just for professionals and entrepreneurs. It can also be applied to develop a robust prayer life.
“Habit stacking is a special form of an implementation intention,” Clear writes. “Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.”
For example, if you want to read more consistently, find a habit you do during your day (like drinking a cup of coffee) and attach your reading to that action. Say “I will read one chapter of this book every morning while I drink my cup of coffee.”
Maybe your prayer life right now includes a lot of rote prayer such as the rosary, and you’re looking to balance it with more contemplative prayer.
First, decide what you will focus on during contemplative prayer (specific scripture, a mystery of the rosary, etc.). Then, attach contemplative prayer to your habit of praying the rosary. “When I finish praying the rosary I will spend ten minutes in contemplative prayer.”
Seemingly simple, habit stacking helps us to develop systems in our lives that become automatic, taking away the need to make as many choices in a day. Having fewer choices in a day frees up more of our mind to focus on what is right in front of us.
Adding in habits won’t happen overnight and won’t automatically reshape your prayer life, but by staying disciplined and devoted in faith, you’ll create an opportunity for God to work through your habits and, ultimately, transform you!
“It is not the actual physical exertion that counts toward a man’s progress, nor the nature of the Task,” wrote St. Francis Xavier, “but the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken.”
