Better Habits for a Better Life
Do you ever feel that your bad habits sometimes outweigh your good ones? Are you quietly nodding in agreement or shaking your head in despair? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. Do you sometimes wonder how much more successful you could be - if only you could tone down your negative traits and highlight your stronger ones?
Challenges are what make life interesting – and overcoming them makes like meaningful.
-?????? Joshua J Marine
However you wish to consider the mechanisms that make up your thoughts and feelings and actions, your habits account for around ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of your behaviour. Now, this might come as a shock to you but that means you’re running on automatic pilot for most of the time.
It might be surprising but the evidence from psychological research reinforces the importance of the profound way our habits influence our lives.
We become accustomed to doing things in the same old way, thinking familiar thoughts and following comfortable patterns of behaviour so that we don’t have to invest too much energy in getting things done.
The recent interest in the practice of mindfulness can be interpreted as a modern attempt to free ourselves from these automated behaviours. Mindfulness can help us to develop greater awareness of how we think and feel and react in any given situation. It’s a moment of space where we can engage our higher brain functions and consider whether our actions are appropriate. Or not.
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
-?????? Stephen Covey
We all have specific habits that are helpful. But we also possess habits that get in the way of our efforts to be happy, fulfilled and successful.
My suggestion for you today is that you take a couple of minutes to make a list of all the bad habits that are getting in the way of your happiness, your success and your wellbeing. There’s no advantage in pretending to be perfect. This is an opportunity to be brutally honest and open about whatever’s hindering you in your own behaviour. It’s an invitation to acknowledge the problems, to drag them out into the open, expose them to the light of reason and use this simple exercise as a springboard for personal development. It’s rarely a comfortable exercise!
But once you’ve completed your list – and it’s much more comfortable to prepare the list yourself than have someone prepare the list for you! – your next step is to identify the three habits that you feel are most harmful to your quest for success. And let’s remember that ‘success’ applies to all areas of your life.
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The mind is everything. What you think – you become.
-?????? Buddha
Once you’ve identified your three critical habits, make a clear and simple note next to each one and describe how you intend to turn them into positive behaviours.
This is far more than an act of renunciation. It’s a declaration of how you will behave from this moment onwards.
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Since more than ninety-five percent of your life is made up of habits, fostering great behaviours will make your life so much more productive, more successful and more fulfilling.
Start with those three bad habits and remove them or transform them into something totally positive that will benefit your life. Your mission is to repeat this simple exercise and remove a block of three negative habits or habits every month until your list is exhausted.
Eradicating bad habits is a magnificent endeavour but choosing really great habits for yourself is a passport to self-mastery.?
Keep a note of all the positive changes that start to show up as you introduce these powerful adjustments to your life. Make it a habit to notice how much better you feel when you take better control of your life.
If you enjoy these blogs, you can imagine how much fun it is to have Greg in the room as an inspirational and highly perceptive speaker. If you’d like to invite Greg to talk to your company or organisation or event, either in person or via a live link on the Internet, feel free to get in touch.
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