You are an accumulation of your habits. From how you get out of bed, shower, dress, walk, talk, sit, think, respond to the world and act in front of others, your habits help determine how you live out your life.
Habits are necessary. They free up your mind so you can concentrate on how to survive day to day. Not having to think about how to drive allows you to be on the lookout for danger. Not having to think about how to walk allows you to concentrate on where you're going. Unfortunately, habits can also keep you locked in self-destructive patterns, which can limit the degree of success you can achieve.
Is there something you want to accomplish in life that requires you to up-level your game? Whatever it is that you want to achieve, you will need to drop the bad habits that lead to dead-ends and develop new ones in alignment with the life you want to live.
Here are some questions to help you uncover your bad habits. (Try to be honest with yourself in answering.):
- Are you always running late?
- Do you return phone calls within 24 hours?
- Do you get enough sleep?
- Do you follow through on your promises?
- Do you plan out your day ahead of time?
Imagine what your life would be like if all your bad habits were magically transmuted into their productive counterparts! Here are some examples:
- What would your life be like if you ate healthy meals, exercised regularly and got plenty of sleep?
- What if you learned to save your money, stop using credit cards and pay cash for everything?
- What if you could stop procrastinating, overcome your fears and begin networking with people in your field?
Would your life be different? I bet it would! So, my suggested action step is to write down some productive habits you would like to adopt. Then start "acting as if" these were already deeply ingrained habits right now.
I recommend developing four new success habits each year, one for each quarter. Once you pick the new habit you're ready to adopt, you'll want to create a method to support your new habit. Here are some ideas: You could write down your new habit on a card which you carry with you and read several times a day. You could also enlist the help of an accountability partner or personal coach to help you stay on track.
