It surprised me. The bigness of radically adjusting what fills my days. But then everyone I chat to says, ‘Oh yeah, it took me about two years,’ and ‘Yip, it was pretty much the most traumatic thing.’ And I’m going, What? Really? You are not helping.

So I’ve been praying and thinking and devouring other people’s perspectives. God has brought some awesome stuff across my pages and to my front door. It’s helping me recalibrate my head and find new peace in profound, life-altering ways.

So over the next as-long-as-it-takes I want to write about some new habits I’m shaping. I think if you want to be all you can be – if you’re a kind of sucking-the-marrow person – then this series is for you.

But first:

By HOLY I mean: set apart for God and his purposes; pure; intentional; simple; focused.

By HABITS I mean: daily or weekly practices; difficult things that make life easy; small ceremonies of beautiful monotony that bring peace and productivity and security and sense; disciplines that bring freedom (like, if you discipline yourself to run run run, you will find yourself free to run a marathon, and enjoy it.)

By HEADSPACE I mean your inside life; your world view; the soul space; the thoughts and emotions that drive and direct you; how and where your dreams and passions fit underneath your skin.

I’ve got five habits to share. Then I’m also keen to ask some of my favourite bloggers and writers to guest post for me about their holy habits. I’m going to make it my habit (ha ha) to keep each post under 500 words. So keep reading.

In advance, I want to honour the following people for ideas and inspiration and insight. Some of them I know. Some of them I don’t. Some of them are family. Two of them are dead. I’ll probably think of others but in the meantime, alphabetically:

Samantha-Leigh Bester, G. K. Chesterton, Pam Ferreira, Jeff Goins, Antoinette Hattingh, Nehemiah, Michael Phelps, Murray Reyburn, Sandra Stanley, Coralie van Reenen, Ann Voskamp.

Wow. Thanks.

Be sure to check out today’s 39 things, and leave a comment.