7 Habits to Awaken Your Super Hero

In your day to day life, have you ever come across someone who is so highly-motivated and pumped up with energy each day?

Do you ever wish that you are like them? Full of positivity and zeal for their life? Yet at the same time, you wonder where does the adrenaline come from?

I used to be one of those who pondered whenever I came across one. I would be thinking: "Hey, this person must be single without much commitments. Being a working parent, especially a mother, my life and time is literally split between my work and family. I just want to finish my work, go back home be with the kids and sleep." The next day would then start all the over again with the pattern. This routine went on for several years.

Then one day in 2017, due to work and personal reasons (work stress and health issues), I felt that something needs to change. This led me to start searching online for answers. From google, this word "Neuro-Linguistics Programming" (NLP) somehow came appearing in top searches. Hence I attended a 3-hours Neuro-Linguistics Programming (NLP) preview class which seemingly had answers to all my problems. I signed up on the spot. This changed my life forever and the rest was history.

In the NLP class, many learnings strongly resonated with me. I found the answers to my unhappiness. I realised what I was lacking - Optimal Balance in my key priorities. But at the same time, my potential was awakened in the 9 days of course. This eventually created a "New-Me", a highly-motivated individual learning to make the best of her everyday.

If you are feeling like the "Old-Me" and would like to change to a "New-Me", here are some ways to help you:

Habit 1: Identify Your Problems

This is the first step. You would need to understand what is causing your discontentment, unsatisfaction or even unhappiness in your key areas of life. Sometimes it could be strained relationships, financial issues, family matters or even health concerns. You need to spend some time to unclutter your thoughts and identify each problem succinctly with clarity.

Like you, I have been through similar phases before where all the problems seemed too big and convoluted to even be sorted out clearly. Speak to someone or even start writing a journal, such actions would enhance clarity.

Habit 2: Commit to a Change

One of the greatest inhibiting obstacles in life is Procrastination. You know that something is wrong. Deep inside, you know that there needs to be a change but many people are afraid to make a commitment. In fact, they procrastinate and sit out, wait a while and hope that the issues would go away on its own. Life does not work this way unfortunately. However to make a change, you need to make a commitment and follow through.

For me, I committed to a change because I knew that something had to change because I was just trapped in a repeated vicious cycle of being stressed up, disengaged at work, unhappy and falling sick frequently. My body was in a wreck and the gynaecologist even found a growing cyst which had to be removed surgically in the coming months due to the emotional stress that manifested in such body symptoms. Strangely and miraculously, 3 months later after I tendered my resignation to make a career switch, my gynae told me that he could not identify the cyst anymore. It simply disappeared!

Habit 3: Identify Your WHY

This is a key step to ensure the follow-through required. Many people failed maintaining the consistency and habits. The only people who have become Successful evolving to a "New-Me" are the ones who found their WHY. This is the reason why we do not give up in spite of daunting challenges. This is the reason why we strive so hard for.

The most difficult part is to identify beyond the superficial why and we have to dig deep enough - The 7-Layers of WHY to find out the real WHY which will evoke the emotional impact.

For example, if you decide that you want to earn big bucks, in the 7 Whys question series, it could have led you to reveal your past growing ups. You want the financial freedom because when you were growing up, your parents often quarrelled about money; this created many insecurities back then for you as a child. Therefore you want the ability to control how many money you make.

Habit 4: Make a Plan, Break Down into Actionable Steps

This plan would need to be in a SMART format and with specific actionable steps which will lead you closer to your declared goals. Do a periodic check-in on your progress and stick by it, no matter what. This is usually THE phase which most people fall off on a tangent and just give up. No matter what we do, consistency and follow-through is key.

I have an excel spreadsheet in a format of a gantt chart. This enables me to mark my progress on the different life pillar goals. I am a strong believer of Mr. Winston Churchill's quote:

He who plans to fail is planning to fail. ~Winston Churchill

Habit 5: Surround yourself with Positive People.

It is time for you to look around the people whom you are interacting with. Are they Energizers or Drainers? The difference between them is that Energizers are those who revitalise you and instill positivity in you. They pump you up with high motivation to continually pursue your goals. Their outlook of life is optimistic and even if negative circumstances occur, they would always manage to reframe the situation into something good.

On the contrary, the Drainers are those who are like Draculas and suck your remaining energy out of you and make you feel so lethargic even after talking to them for a short while. Be careful because they could potentially become your "Dream-Killers". They are typically the ones whom when you share your dreams to, they would dismiss you by through their negative statements such as "No, that idea is not feasible", "How is that even possible?"

Start to take a close look at the people around you. Which category do they fall into? Of course we are not asking you to 'unfriend' but rather choose wisely and allocate your time effectively to hang around with the Energizers who would be the cheering and rooting for you in the pursuit of your goals and dreams.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with ~ Jim Rohn

Habit 6: Celebrate small wins

Sometimes the process can be a long arduous journey. Seize every opportunity to celebrate small wins. Share these happy moments with your Energizers. I am absolutely sure that they would be happy for you. Repeat this routine continuously because this will reinforce and reaffirm your little positive steps ahead to your goals.

Habit 7: Amplify your Strengths. Downplay your Weakness.

In the process of this self-discovery to awakening your potential, you might have started to realise your key strengths and weaknesses. Unlike the school days, we had been taught to work on our weaker subjects to improve the overall performance. However fast forward to working life, it is far important to leverage on our strengths, build on it and amplify it. This will bring on phenomenal results and outcome.

One of my key weaknesses is the ability to organise my administrative work. I even find it a chore whenever I have to file or follow up on paperwork. This seemed rather paradoxical I was HR trained and by right we should be the organised type. So I have learnt to delegate and focus on my competitive advantage which is to network and talk to people. I have learnt to focus on my core strengths than to beat myself up for having a disorganised desk.

I hope that this article will help you take the first step towards awakening your inner Super Hero. I had been through this before when I did a bold career switch 2 years ago. Having gone through this journey before, I know it's not going to be easy but I hope this article with the little tips will give you some inspiration that someone has done it before and you are not alone in this seemingly lonely journey.