The Power of Good Habits
If you've ever learned to play a sport or taken up a new personal interest, you'll know how satisfying it can feel to reach a significant goal. As well as learning something new, you've changed yourself for the better. That's an empowering thought!
Good habits lie behind many of these positive changes. The repeated actions – attending a weekly sports practice, for example – help you to build the change into your daily life. In this article, we'll discuss how good habits can help you grow, personally and professionally.
Follow these steps to develop good habits in your daily life, and to kick-start positive change.
1. Identify What You Want to Achieve
First, note down your personal and professional goals. You'll need to develop new habits to achieve these goals, so it's important that you're clear about what they are.
2. Build Good Habits Into Your Routine
Find ways to build your new habit into your routine. Block out a regular time for it in your schedule, so that you can give your positive habit your full attention. It's much easier to establish good habits if they fall during your most productive time of day.
3. Reflect on Your Habits
As you progress with your new habit, reflect on how it's working for you. If you're struggling to stick to it, think about why this is. Were you too ambitious? If so, consider setting a more manageable short-term goal to remotivate yourself.
4. Develop Self-Discipline
One way to strengthen your self-discipline is to create a Treasure Map: a collage or visual representation of what you want to achieve. This will remind you why your new positive habit is so important to you. This can be just what you need to get motivated on days when your enthusiasm is waning.
5. Get Support
It can be hard to stick to a new habit when you're on your own. So share your goals with colleagues or friends, and ask them to support you. For example, you could ask them to call you check on your progress. Or, if they share your goal, you could meet them each week to support one another and maintain progress.
Good habits are powerful. They bring about change one step at a time, and they help you ensure that these changes become part of your life.
However, you're far more likely to reach your goal if you make your new habits part of your regular routine.
References:
https://www.mindtools.com/asjk493/the-power-of-good-habits