Your habits play a vital role in shaping up your life and bringing desired outcomes. Whatever and wherever you are today, it’s the sum of your habits. The law of karma says your actions alone are responsible for what you will be tomorrow, which means the habits you practice today will determine how your tomorrow will be.
Developing good habits requires a reality check in your present life. What substantial things have you done in your life so far? Have you ever used your willpower to face challenges or to increase your inner strength? If you want a better future, you always have a choice – get hard on yourself so life becomes easier, or get easy on yourself resulting in life getting harder. Thus, your success and happiness are the direct result of the culmination of all your habits.
As a matter of fact, seemingly small habits repeated on a daily basis over a long period of time, can bring extraordinary outcomes. If you choose good habits, at first they won’t seem like they are helping you accomplish much, but they do just be patient. As the saying goes, “small hinges open big doors”.
In his 2012 bestselling book, “The Power of Habit”, Pulitzer-prize winning author Charles Duhigg explains why habits exist and how potentially they can transform one’s life. The book digs deeper regarding the psychology of habits. Duhigg goes on to explain habits work in 3-step loops: cue, routine, reward. The cue is what triggers you to do the habit; the routine is the behaviour you then automatically engage in; lastly, you will receive a reward for completing the routine. Therefore, the argument is certain keystone habits can earn billions, change communities and create difference between success and failure, and life and death.
Here are seven powerful habits that can transform your life.
Believe in yourself.
Before you start doing something big or take up a new responsibility, you must have faith in yourself. Believing in your abilities is the first step toward fulfilling your objectives. Self-belief is something that inspires you to take action. If you want to be ahead in your life and become successful, then you need to develop greater self-confidence and self-esteem. You should recognize that it all starts from within, and believing in yourself is the fuel that propels and keeps you going. This belief gives you the strength and reason to step out of your comfort zones, grow, learn and go to the next level in life. If you have some fears within you, your belief system will help you confront them, challenge them and eventually overcome them. Examples are replete around you as there are so many renowned disabled people who did not seem to do anything in their lives. But the moment they found belief in themselves, everything was changed.
Remember failure is the precursor to success.
It is often said that failure is life’s greatest teacher. Failure acts like the nature’s chisel that chips away your weaknesses and egos, while shaping your life into something valuable. Unless you fail you can’t understand the value of success, but before that know the value of failure itself. Make it a habit not to be afraid of failure. It will give you the strength to keep trying until you succeed. It is often said that the sweetest victory is the one that’s most difficult. History is replete with examples of failures that became steppingstones to later success. A distinct example is Thomas Edison, who failed 1,000 times before he successfully developed a working prototype of a light bulb. “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” a reporter asked him. Edison replied, “At least I know 1,000 methods by which a light bulb can’t be developed”. Thus, it is important to understand that failure is life’s greatest teacher.
Embrace a healthy life.
Leading a healthy lifestyle is absolutely necessary because good mental and physical health are the fundamental components of achieving your overall well-being. A healthy mind stays in a healthy body and makes sure you take care of both. This one habit will always keep you fit, happy and motivated. In order to maintain a healthy life, you need to focus on a nutritious diet and lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle depends on three crucial factors: variation in foods and meals, a balanced energy intake, and enough physical activity. Today, stress has affected many people’s lives, due to which they start abusing substances and develop an addiction. For such people, drug and alcohol detox provides a powerful way to recover from addiction. So, you should rather stay away from any such chemical stimulant to fight stress. Rather, embrace a healthy life for a holistic healing. The key, therefore, is to maintain a balanced lifestyle and bringing healthy changes daily and you will see improvements in your health, appearance, activity, and energy.
Always be positive.
A positive attitude goes a long way in overcoming apprehensions, self-doubts, fears and negativity. If you are a positive thinking person, people will love your company and appreciate your disposition toward life. Remember, being positive is not only good for you, you will also inspire people around you as it is contagious. Positive thinking allows you to achieve what you want, helps you feel good, and it immediately improves your life in many ways. The more positive value you see in your life, the more you value yourself, and the more you enjoy your social interactions. Ups and downs are part and parcel of everyone’s life, but being negative about the bad things happening to you will forever put a damper around you. Staying positive is extremely crucial for your physical, mental and emotional health. So, by letting negative thoughts remain in your mind will make both your brain and body stressed. A positive attitude would also enhance your self confidence, your courage, and your inner strength.
Keep motivating yourself.
Self-motivation is a powerful habit that supports you through thick and thin because it is fire from within. The more you stay motivated, the farther you will go in your life, and the more difficult feats you will be able to achieve. The burning desire to achieve your goals only comes when you are motivated, which determines your eventual success. In this fast-paced competitive world where everyone is completely responsible for their success, self-motivation helps in acquiring energy, knowledge, and necessary abilities to achieve stated objectives. In order to motivate yourself, you must feel that you are in complete control, which means you are more self-assured, and it will be easier for you to overcome setbacks. When you are filled with motivation, you are driven and more determined to create the life that you want to live. Thus, the desire for self improvement must be maintained throughout the process, which is what motivation really is.
Set your life goals.
Goal setting is the first step of successful goal achievement. It is when you switch from a passive state and get involved in life. Life without goals is like flying a plane not knowing where you want to land. Setting life goals is a highly rewarding habit that always keeps you on your toes, while not letting you to stray from your path. Goals give you focus, and you can’t achieve anything unless a goal is focusing your efforts. At the end of the day goals are what give you direction in life. By setting goals for yourself you give yourself a target to shoot for. Setting life goals is creating a meaning in your life with which you think about your ideal future. This helps in motivating yourself to turn your vision into reality. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts.
Practice meditation.
Practicing meditation is very important for your spiritual and emotional health. There are many more health and life benefits of regular meditation. It reduces stress levels, alleviates anxiety and enables you to have a deeper understanding of your inner self. It is therefore associated with peace, happiness and bliss. Just five minutes of meditation per day is enough to increase your levels of fulfillment if you stick to it. Many people like the idea of meditation, but feel they don’t have enough time. When you really want to do something you can find time. To get better results from meditation, you need to practice it; you should decide a place and time where no one can disturb you. One powerful technique to start practicing meditation is concentrating on a candle flame. Now narrow your gaze to the small tip and block out all other thoughts. Thus, a daily habit of meditation, especially in the morning increases focus and productivity.
The sheer psychology of habits can be summed up to say they either “make” you or “break” you. Habits make it possible for you to do things without spending exorbitant mental effort. Changing habits can be done, difficult though, but when it’s done – it always happens for better. In life situations, a common logic goes - a person, whose habits are good, will generally be found to be methodical, preserving and dutiful. He who regards life from a more serious standpoint wins more often!!
Beliefnet.com
No comments:
Post a Comment