The Reason Habits Do Not Last Is Often How You Place Break Points
You start a new habit, but the flow breaks off midway. Not a few people in their 40s and 50s feel this way. The reason it does not last is not only strength of will. In general, a common form is that because no review day is decided, you notice the breakdown late and it stops as it is.
To keep a habit going, it is effective to place break points where you stop and check midway in advance, rather than relying on the resolve to start. In this article, we introduce a method that uses the rhythm of the Moon's waxing and waning as a marker for those break points. No special tools or procedures are needed. It is a usage where you simply place date markers on a calendar.
The Moon's Waxing and Waning Goes Around Once in About 29.5 Days
The Moon goes through its waxing and waning once in about 29.5 days. The flow from new moon to full moon, and from full moon to the next new moon, repeats almost every month. This length of about one month is a unit that is easy to use as a break point for habits. One week is too short for changes to be visible, and three months is too long and reviews come late. The cycle of about 29.5 days is in between.
On this site, we read the new moon as a marker for a break point and the full moon as a marker for review. Around the new moon, you confirm the form of the habit you will continue in that cycle, and around the full moon about two weeks later, you confirm whether it is continuing and whether there is strain. The basic form is to place the starting confirmation and the midway review along the Moon's flow.
Looking at How to Place Break Points Using 2027 Dates as an Example
As an example of dates, here are the calculated new moons and full moons of 2027. The new moons are January 8 and July 4, and the full moons are January 22 and July 19.
For example, if you decide the form of a habit at the beginning of the year, you can consider a form where you place the new moon on January 8 as the first break point, and place the full moon on January 22 as the review day. If it is continuing as of January 22, you continue that form in the next cycle as well. If it has broken down, instead of quitting the habit itself, you fix the form side — such as the amount per session or the time of day you do it — and wait for the next new moon.
The second half of the year is the same. On the new moon of July 4, you confirm a form suited to life at that time, and review it at the full moon on July 19. Decide the form at the new moon, and see whether it is continuing at the full moon. Even repeating this just a few times a year lets you notice habit breakdowns earlier.
The dates of new moons and full moons are listed as that month's planetary movements on this site's monthly horoscope pages and elsewhere. If you make it a form where you check that month's dates when the month changes and mark them on a calendar, the effort of looking them up again does not increase.
Use It Within the Range of Habits — Treat Rest Schedules as One Habit Too
The habits handled in this reading are within the range of your own actions, such as how you carry work forward and how you organize daily life. For example, deciding a day to organize materials, deciding a time period to walk, deciding a time to finish preparing for the next day, and similar forms.
Rest is also handled within the range of habits. Placing days to rest, or time periods when you do not put in plans, on a calendar in advance is a habit as a matter of organization. A form that fits is to also check together, at the full moon review, whether rest schedules were kept in that cycle. However, this is purely a matter of how to make plans. It does not diagnose or treat the condition of the body, and does not state definitively the effects of rest. Please keep the Moon's rhythm within the range of using it as a marker for making plans, including rest.
Another Key Point for Keeping Habits Going
Even if you use the Moon's rhythm as a marker, if the form of the habit itself has strain, it will not continue. The key point for continuing is not to change the form greatly at each review, but to fix only the broken part in a small way.
Also, as a guide, limit the habits you handle in one cycle to one or two. If you start many at the same time, it becomes hard to tell which one broke down at review time as well. Narrow down the habits you handle in each cycle, and fix the form little by little. Combining that approach with the break points of about 29.5 days is how to use this reading.
It is also useful to keep a short record of review results. If you leave just one word about the number of days you continued in that cycle or the reason it broke down, it becomes material for when you fix the form in the next cycle. To keep the record itself from becoming a new burden, decide in advance where and how much to write, and do it together with the full moon review — that form is easier to continue.
New moons and full moons always arrive every month. Use them not as markers for a large resolve, but as regular markers for reconfirming the form of a habit. That light usage leads, as a result, to continuing for a long time.