Creating Life Changing Habits
Updated: Aug 11, 2021
Our daily habits create so much of our lives. Without them we would have very little structure. Just think of the everything you do each morning when you wake. You might not do them in the same order but it will all be similar in purpose.
We all have habits whether you are aware of them are not. Even when you procrastinate that is also a habit.
To build and form good habits and the ones that you want you first have to raise awareness of the ones that you currently have.
There are some simple steps to follow:
The best way to do this is to get yourself a notebook and carry it with you for at least a week and write down everything that you do. Do not be conscious and change anything. Only you will read this and it will uncover some truths.
Writie down your goals. No matter how big or small. They can be connected or unconnected. There really is no structure to this but set measurable goals. Do not write vague one such as 'being happy' write down what will make you happy.
After a week or more look at your current habits that serve those goals. This is the first step in alignment which is the most important aspect.
Writie a list of good habits that will define your purpose towards your goals. These need to be new ones or an expansion on current ones.
Identify your 'bad' non-serving habits.
Start to replace the bad ones with good new ones.
Repeat these on a regular basis to be aware of if your habits are still serving you.
Where most people fail with habit setting is in 2 areas:
They try and add habits without removing any. These naturally leads to overwhelm and something has to give before they reach burnout. What gives is the new habits. They aren't inbeded enough to stick around regardless of the motivation behind it. Just think of them as a tree. The longer the tree has been growing the deeper and more wide spread the roots are. When the storm comes the trees with shallow roots are more likely to suffer damage and be ripped out of the ground altogether.
Goals and habits aren't aligned. What I mean by this is that the final why isn't strong enough and the motivation drops over time. A good example of this is weight loss being the goal. So the new habit is to exercise and eat healthy. Unless you clearly define your reason for weight loss, such as having more energy to play with your children then you will slip into old habits and stop the new ones.
Work through all of these steps and avoid the 2 most common mistakes, upgrade your habits on a regular basis and go crush your goals.