For a long time, our approach to gardening was mostly one of weeding – rid the plot of the weeds, and then come back later to do it again.
More recently, we have begun to intentionally cultivate plants we want to see there. Now we come back to encourage these plants to grow.
The process of forming habits is a lot like gardening. If you want to get better at a set of skills, you need to focus on growing the skills you desire, not on eliminating the bad habits you want gone.
You can weed as many times as you want, but if you don’t plant anything in their place, the weeds will just keep growing.
Get the good stuff growing, and two things will happen: first, it will be harder for the weeds to grow; second, you’ll be far more motivated to get out and weed to protect your new habits.
All too often, our teaching tends to focus on eliminating the bad habits, rather than on cultivating good ones.
Practice cultivating a garden of good habits, and watch your skills bloom into existence.