The Power of Habits

Empower to Excel – The Incredible ‘U - Day 20?

You Are What You Do

Introduction

I always wondered and asked myself one question, “Why are some people more successful than others?”

After reading through a lot of books and articles on the subjects of philosophy, psychology, religion, metaphysics, history, economics, and business. Over time, the answers came to me, one by one, and gradually crystallized into a clear picture and a simple explanation.?

It is this: You are where you are and what you are because of yourself.

Everything you are today, or ever will be in the future, is up to you. Your life today is the sum total result of your choices, decisions and actions up to this point.?

You can create your own future by changing your behaviours

You can make new choices and decisions that are more consistent with the person you want to be and the things you want to accomplish with your life.

The Power of Habit?

Perhaps the most important discovery in the fields of psychology and success is that fully 95 percent of everything that you think, feel, do and achieve is the result of a habit.?

Beginning in childhood, you have developed a series of conditioned responses that lead you to react automatically and unthinkingly in almost every situation.?

To put it simply, successful people have “success habits” and unsuccessful people do not.?

Successful, happy, healthy, prosperous men and women easily, automatically and consistently do and say the right things in the right way at the right time.?

As a result, they accomplish ten and twenty times as much as average people who have not yet learned these habits and practiced these behaviours.?

“Habit my friend, is practice long pursued,

that at last becomes the man himself.” (Evenus)

95 percent of everything that you think, feel, do and achieve is the result of a powerful habit.

Habit?is?a?choice that we deliberately make at some point and then stop thinking about it, but continue doing, often every day.

Formation of a Habit Pattern

According to the experts, it takes about 21 days to form a habit pattern of medium complexity.

By this, we mean simple habits such as?

·???????getting up earlier at a specific hour,?

·???????exercising each morning before you start out,?

·???????listening to audio programs in your car,?

·???????going to bed at a certain hour,?

·???????being punctual for appointments,?

·???????planning every day in advance,?

·???????starting with your most important tasks each day, or?

·???????Completing your tasks before you start something else.?

These are habits of medium complexity that can be quite easily developed in 14-21 days through practice and repetition.

Changing Your Habits

You may be wondering: is it even possible to change your habits and create new ones??

The answer is yes! Change is always possible, and a person is never too out-of-shape, overweight, or old to make healthy changes.?

We will discuss strategies to help you improve your habits. Whether you feel like change is a world away or just around the corner, the information here can help you get started. One Step at a Time.

Old habits die hard. If you want to change your habits, you may find it helpful to make realistic and gradual changes one step at a time and at your own pace.?

Let’s take for example that you wish to lose weight, for that you will have to change your eating or physical habits.

It is important to think about what motivates you, what trips you up, and what you enjoy when it comes to eating and activity habits.?

There is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” approach.?

The first step in developing your personal plan for change is to figure out where you stand

Many people who are interested in becoming more active or eating healthier foods fall into one of four “stages” of change.

Seven Steps to a New Habit?

How do you develop a new habit??

Over the years, a simple, powerful, proven seven-step methodology has been determined for new habit development.?

It is very much like a recipe for preparing a dish in the kitchen. You can use it to develop any habit that you desire.?

With practice, you will find it easier and easier to develop the habits that you want to incorporate into your personality.?

First, make a decision.?

Deciding what habit will make the biggest impact on your success is crucial. Don’t confuse urgent tasks with important ones. Your inbox will always be full, so schedule time for the items that truly will take you to the next level so they don’t get overlooked by daily email or “kitchen fires.”?

Be sure to make a list of all of the habits you feel can make an impact on your goals, then prioritise them.?

Whatever your goal is, decide clearly that you are going to begin acting in a specific way 100 percent of the time, whenever that that behaviour is required.?

For example, if you decide to rise early and exercise each morning, set your clock for a specific time, and when the alarm goes off, immediately get up, put on your exercise clothes and begin your exercise session.?

Second?never allow an exception to your new habit pattern during the formative stages.?

Exceptions are the root of all new habit demise. It’s easy to rationalize exceptions when they seem isolated. Important interruptions come in many forms such as unexpected visitors, technical malfunctions or simply a late night out. If you let one exception creep into your plan, it becomes easy to let another slip by, and soon your whole goal is derailed.?

Commit to the goal without exception.?

Don’t make excuses or rationalizations.?

Don’t let yourself off the hook. If you resolve to get up at 6:00 a.m. each morning, discipline yourself to get up at 6:00 a.m., every single morning until this becomes automatic.

Third,?tell others that you are going to begin practicing a particular behaviour

It is amazing how much more disciplined and determined you will become when you know that others are watching you to see if you have the willpower to follow through on your resolution.?

It’s easier to allow exceptions or deviations from your goal when you are the only when that knows.?

If you have to announce partial failure or explain something to others in a public fashion, stretching the truth is suddenly not an option. Tell one, tell all.?

You also will become more likely to stay on track with the support of those who want to see you succeed.?

Fourth,?visualize yourself performing or behaving in a particular way in a particular situation. There is tremendous power in visualization (Read my blog – The Power of Visualization)

The more often you visualize and imagine yourself acting as if you already had the new habit, the more rapidly this new behaviour will be accepted by your subconscious mind and become automatic.?

The same muscles are activated whether you are physically or mentally imagining a task: this means you actually derive the benefits of practice in both situations.?

This even applies to physical behaviours like golf or dance.?

You can bridle your fears in your visualizations before you venture out into the real world.?

By visualizing, you also allow yourself to problem solve for expected obstacles and be ready for them when they happen in reality.?

Fifth,?create an affirmation that you repeat over and over to yourself.?

This repetition dramatically increases the speed at which you develop the new habit.?

For example, you can say something like; “I get up and get going immediately at 6:00 a.m. each morning!”?

Repeat these words the last thing before you fall asleep. In most cases, you will automatically wake up minutes before the alarm clock goes off, and soon you will need no alarm clock at all.?

It’s true that what you focus on grows.?

Simply filling your mind with more of what you want to achieve is an undeniable strategy for changing your mind-set.?

Directly and intentionally, change your thought patterns.

Sixth,?resolve to persist in the new behaviour until it is so automatic and easy that you actually feel uncomfortable when you do not do what you have decided to do.?

This is a true test of transformation. While personality is arguably inherent, anything is learnable and you can change any behaviour if you are committed. Some goals take hours to change while others take years.?

Only you will know when you have fully embodied the change and have reached your goal. And only when you stay strong and committed to your goal will you no longer gravitate towards old, automatic behaviours, and finally reap the benefits of the new, desirable behaviour.?

Seventh, and most important, give yourself a reward of some kind for practicing in the new behaviour.?

Why is this important? Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behaviour.?

Soon you begin to associate, at an unconscious level, the pleasure of the reward with the behaviour.?

You set up your own force field of positive consequences that you unconsciously look forward to as the result of engaging in the behaviour or habit that you have decided upon.?

Even if you believe you are devoted to your goals, rewarding yourself is insurance to keep you going even in face of obstacles.?

At minimum, it will be a fun practice that underscores the respect you deserve for your hard work.

To your success

Meenakshi Roy

Futurezen Lifestyle Academy