The Power of Good Habits!

It's 6:30 pm. I go to my room, shut the door, turn on my computer, and put on the headset. The Windows XP logo disappears, I insert FIFA 2003 game DVD, and here we go! My midfielder fires a beautiful shoot in the 92nd minute. "Hurray! Yes, Yes, YEEEEES!" I raise my arms and punch my desk. I look around, realising my father is standing next to me. I remove the headset. There's a long awkward silence. "When I was your age, I had to........" and dad starts his famous middle eastern fatherly speech, which is anything but motivational.

Yes. I used to play till 2 or 3 am every night. It was so exciting. I built a new team, won many games, and transferred new superstars to my team when I earned enough cash. In six months, I won all the cups and leagues around the globe. Six months of dedication to the game I loved in its "Semi-Pro" mode.

It was time to enhance the experience, and I started playing the game in the "World Class" mode. I drew the first match, lost the second and third ones, and never played FIFA after that on my own.

This is how I spent six months of my life at 24.

What happened?

After finishing my bachelor's and master's degrees, I still didn't feel like a winner in life. They were just a bunch of degrees. I couldn't be proud of myself even though I was one of the top students during all those years of studying.

I loved playing soccer and other sports, but you'd better give up when you have an unhealthy heart combined with Iranian parents. So, the only times I felt like a winner was imaginary and virtual through playing FIFA. I was not ready to win in real life.

When I couldn't beat the "World Class" mode, I realised that failure is a part of life. I realised that I had to be disappointed to be able to rise again. I had to become humbled many times in my life after that point.

What did help me win in real life?

One of the best events that happened to me was being introduced to the great "How To Stop Worrying & Start Living" book by Dale Carnegie. I read the first ten pages of the book and thought the writer was a genius, not realising Carnegie wrote it in 1948. I decided to read all the examples in the book, think about them and make them my practice. I'm not exaggerating that I'm still practising those rules even though I forgot the exact examples in the book.

Let's clarify. What helped me was not the book yet myself! All those practices became part of me because I was the one who made all these things happen. I read many more books after that and tried to do the same.

Not surprisingly, I started winning in real life! Small wins became big wins, sometimes interrupted by failures, which I decided to learn from, humble my ego and move on.

Self-Discipline and self-motivation

Witnessing my self-driven pieces of success, I decided to become more disciplined and active. I read more, learned more, played sports more, became more positive, had fun with good friends, and shared my humbling experiences with professionals who needed guidance. Most importantly, they became my routine habits.

I decided not to be dragged into lazy and unhealthy habits and live a satisfying life where I do not blame myself for the lack of determination.

Give this a go if you think you want to win more in life. Start with winning small, and I promise it will grow quickly. Pick your challenge and enjoy doing it:

• Read/listen to a book every month
• Do 10 minutes of exercise every morning
• Learn one software package every three months
• Try a meal that you never tried every month??
• Catch up once a month with people from whom you learn

Or

• Reduce the 15 minutes you spend watching nonsense every night

Remember

1. You must do them consistently;
2. These habits should have a timeframe;
3. Make sure you spend quality time with your family members; and
4. Sometimes doing absolutely nothing is valuable.

Enjoy winning!