“A long healthy life is no accident. It begins with good genes, but it also depends on good habits.” – Dan Buettner
I like this quote because I want a long healthy life. Most of us would say the same. I’m convinced now more than ever before is a great time to be alive. We live in a time where you can really do just about anything that you can think of.
Habits Determine Everything
Start a business, grow an online following, or write a book, there’s nothing that is out of your reach. One of the main differences from people we see doing these great things and us, are that they have better habits than us.
From YouTube to podcast exerts, people that are successful in these different areas have developed habits that help them to be consistent. We like to think that they are an overnight success, but the truth is that they have been doing YouTube, writing, whatever it is, they’ve been doing it for years before we noticed.
I remember one time that I wanted to change my exercise habits. Well I wanted to actually have an exercise habit. I was looking to get into shape, but I wasn’t really looking to join a gym. So, I bought P90X. I did my research, got really excited about the program. I even did it for about 2 weeks. Something came up and then something else came up and before I knew it, P90X was in my basement and I had moved on.
Overnight Success?
Changing our lives is never an overnight success. It takes good habits that will push us toward our goal. Good habits lead to good character and a changed life. If you have a story like the above one that I had, you know what it’s like to start something, do it for a little while and then give up or forget about it. We have to be able to push through that cycle.
Here are some things we can do to establish better habits and stick to them.
- Start small, choose one thing
- Make it SMART, click here for what a SMART goal is
- Look at your schedule to see what you will be adding or subtracting to make room for this new habit
- Ask why. Make sure it’s really what YOU want, not what you feel you should do
- Establish some accountability
- Automate as much or as best as you can {I don’t know what this means, you might want to expound because it might help others like myself}
- Take small steps
- Celebrate the small victories along the way
- For goals or habits that are longer than a year, have times reviewing the habit/goal to see how you’re doing. I recommend every 90 days
- Stick with it, the longer you do it the more it will be a part of your makeup.
What habits are you looking to establish? What goals do you want to reach?