21-Day LGBTQ+ Equity Habit Building Challenge
This morning I ran the Running with Pride 5K, sponsored by the Dayton chapter of PFLAG.
PFLAG is no longer used as an acronym. But originally the acronym stood for Parents and Families of Lesbians and Gays. Now, simply known as PFLAG, it’s the first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals and their parents, friends, and allies. Oak Ridge has a PFLAG chapter and, of course, Knoxville is home to Knox Pride, which historically hosts events like ArtOut, a silent art auction, and Next-2-Nothing, an underwear fashion show. It also hosts an annual pride festival.
June is Pride Month. It’s a time when the world’s LGBTQ+ communities come together and celebrate the freedom to be themselves. The month honors the Stonewall uprising in June 1969 in New York City, which helped spark the modern gay rights movement.
The American Bar Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council has launched a 21-Day LGBTQ+ Equity Habit Building Challenge syllabus in honor of Pride Month.
The Challenge invites participants to complete a series of 21 daily, short assignments (typically taking 15-30 minutes), over 21 consecutive days, that includes readings, videos, or podcasts. The Challenge is designed to expose participants to perspectives on elements of LGBTQ+ histories, identities, and cultures.
According to the ABA: “The goal of the Challenge is to assist each of us to become more aware, compassionate, constructive, engaged people in the quest for equity, and specifically to learn more about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and many communities included under the ‘LGBTQ+ umbrella.’ It transcends our roles as lawyers. Non-lawyers are also welcome to participate.”
I’ll be carving out time each day to complete this Challenge. But I understand that completing the “Habit Building” Challenge, for 21 consecutive days, is bit misleading.
As Dr. Jason Selk wrote in Forbes: “Most people believe that habits are formed by completing a task for 21 days in a row. Twenty-one days of task completion, then voila, a habit is formed. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. The 21-day myth began as a misinterpretation of Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s work on self-image. Maltz did not find that 21 days of task completion forms a habit. People wanted it to be true so much so, however, that the idea began to grow in popularity.”
Instead, as Selk wrote, habit formation requires three phases:
Phase 1: The Honeymoon
This is when everything seems easy. We might seem motivated to get started and embark on our new habit. But we all know that honeymoons must end.
Phase 2: The Fight Through
In this phase, the honeymoon is over, and we might forget what motivated or inspired us to get started in the first place. At the same time, we might remember our old habits and begin to miss them. As a result, we begin to question if our new habit is worth it in this phase, which threatens our ability to continue building that habit.
Phase 3: Second Nature
Some people describe entering Phase 3 as “getting in the groove.” By fighting through those obstacles of doubt that we encountered in Phase 2, we start to build consistency over time. With every victory, the habits slowly become a part of our daily routine.
Whether you decide to complete the ABA’s 21-Day LGBTQ+ Equity Habit Building Challenge, or you decide to incorporate some other habit into your studying routine for the bar exam, remember that it takes discipline and hard work on a daily basis to keep those habits in place.
