Up-level Your Habits to Improve Your Life
One of the quotes that has always resonated with me is “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity”. We all know this is true, yet many people continue doing the same things again and again expecting their circumstances to magically be different or they just settle for a life that is comfortable to them but is not exciting or joyful. It makes me sad to see so many people that are miserable and unhappy with their life but continue with their same routine every day and never do anything to change their circumstances. I have met too many people that wish away most of their life, waiting for the weekends, vacation or even retirement to hurry up and arrive. We all have the ability to design a life that we love but it requires intention and consistency and ultimately requires us to up-level our habits.
The definition of a habit is a usual way of behaving or something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way. It has been said that more than 70% of what we do is while we are in autopilot mode and is an unconscious habit. How we start our day, how we interact with others, how we do our work, how we eat, what we think about, what we give our attention to and even our own happiness are all basically habits that we either intentionally or unintentionally adopted. These habits either serve us well and lead to positive results or they do the opposite and lead to a life of frustration and unhappiness.
How we think, how we react to situations and even the energy we convey are the result of personal habits. Many of our habits and beliefs were created while we were very young and as a result of the experiences we had as children. Many of us have adopted the habits and beliefs of our parents and people we spent the most time with while we were growing and developing. With intention and consistency, it’s possible to change any habits and ultimately create a better life with positive circumstances and results that we truly desire.
Below are some steps you can follow to begin up-leveling your habits to improve your life.
Take Inventory of Your Habits
The first step in up-leveling your habits is to take inventory of the habits that you currently have in place. Identify and understand which positive and negative habits you currently have related to your health, relationships, finances, spirituality, and career.
Recognize the specific habits that are preventing you from achieving your goals and why it is imperative to make changes. Identify one specific habit that you would like to eliminate and which will have a major impact on improving your life. Start with one habit to change as focusing on too many things at once leads to overwhelm, frustration and ultimately failure in making a significant change.
Eliminate the Negative and Replace with Positive
Understand triggers and patterns: Pay attention to the situations, emotions or thoughts that trigger the habit. Recognize any patterns or cues that lead to its occurrence.
Replace with a positive habit: Instead of solely focusing on stopping the bad habit, find a healthier alternative to replace it. Choose a positive habit that aligns with your goals and brings you satisfaction or fulfillment.
Anchor Your New Habit
Ensure your success by anchoring your new habit to a habit that already exits. In order to get a new habit to stick, find something you already do such as brushing your teeth each day and attach the new habit to this. This concept is recommended by James Clear in his book “Atomic Habits”. I used this approach to develop a better habit of using my daily planner. Each night I placed my planner next to my toothbrush so I would see it and remember to get my planning completed for the next day. Sometimes we forget to implement our new habit if we don’t have any visual cues that serve as a reminder for us.
Create a Supportive Environment
Modify your environment to make it easier to avoid the triggers associated with the bad habit. Remove temptations or cues that reinforce the habit and surround yourself with supportive people who can encourage your positive changes.
Share your goal with people that will support you and help you stay accountable. Avoid sharing your goals with people who will not be supportive and do not have your best interests in mind.
Use positive reinforcement: Celebrate small victories along the way to stay motivated. Reward yourself for each milestone achieved, reinforcing your progress and commitment to breaking the habit.
Practice Mindfulness and Learn From Setbacks
Cultivate self-awareness to catch yourself in the act of engaging in the bad habit. Practice mindfulness techniques to increase your ability to make conscious choices and resist the urge. If you slip or experience setbacks, don’t be too hard on yourself. Use these instances as opportunities to learn and adjust your approach. Plan for ways to get back on track as fast as possible.
Stay persistent and patient: Breaking a habit takes time and effort. Stay persistent, stay focused on your goal and be patient with yourself throughout the process.
Unless we are intentional about our habits, we cannot expect to have a better experience or create change. Developing habits that support us can take us to the next level in designing the life of our dreams.