Hello there, hope you're having a fantastic day so far. This is my 13th Steem essay and I think this particular one is beyond crucial if you ever wanna be successful at doing anything. Enjoy!
I know no other more subtle or powerful way to change your life than to change your habits. The habits that we have make up for around 60% of our daily activities. But what are the implications of having habits and how does one build habits on command? Please read on to find out.
The small things that we do every day have a lot of impact in our lives. Rarely do they have quick or immediately big consequences, that's why most people waste the chance to improve upon them or change them. The delayed effect of habits means that you won't see your world change in one day and that's difficult for a lot of people to endure in our instant gratification culture.
But habits play a gigantic, I'd say defining role in our lives. We seldom realize just how much our habits define us and the amount of influence that they carry within our lives.
As humans, we are what we constantly do and what we constantly are is what we do.
We are the total sum of all of our habits. This realization can be incredibly empowering, yet daunting at the same time. How so? Because once you know how the game is played, you will lay a foundation of patience, kindness for yourself and results. If you know that the winning the game of life is a long-term bet (and you bet it is,) it will be easier to get started and stay on the right track.
You're reading these word right now because I made a habit out of writing at least 500 words daily and I stuck to it. Sure, this is just an article on Steemit, but one of the side benefits of discovering how habits work is that I was able to truly acknowledge that I can do anything so far as my habits are in the right place.
Habits are the gift that keeps on giving, or taking, depending on how you use them.
The joys of having positive habits are lost on most people. That's because habits tend to be very subtle in their immediate impact, but loud in their long-term embodiments. So we must learn to enjoy those subtle joys, those small victories. We must learn to savor them and thrive on them, your well-being depends on it.
One of the most fantastic things about habits is that they become automatic after doing them for a few months. That's why I think using them as leverage is such a smart move, because they will become an integral and symbiotic part of our lives and they will become pretty much effortless, making way for even more habits to be integrated into and shape your life.
There are several strategies to build habits, but I will talk about the only one that worked for me. I started out acting small and staid small until the habit was already in place. Then I continued working it or increased its size, which was considerably more easy than trying to take on it all at the same time. How small? After taking inventory and thinking strategy, my first habit was to sleep at least 7 hours.
The former might come to a shock to some people. Why start with something so mindbogglingly simple and that I probably already do?
I did it precisely because it would be easy.
I knew that as I started to track my sleep, I could take on other habits next and my consistency to the previous habit would act as leverage for the new one. In other words, I got my consistency rate up by looking at what I was already doing.
I can say that learning my own way of creating and fostering habits is the biggest epiphany that I've ever had. It will probably remain that way until I die too. The liberation and benefits that came after I took inventory, experimented with what I thought would work for me and refined after the fact is exactly what allowed my success to build upon itself.
You would be surprised at the amount of things that you can change just with subtle tweaks and adjustments in your daily habits. Quality of health, relationships and finances are some of the things most often people want to change in their lives. Buying another product will not make a difference. The new thing has to be internal, not external. If you buy "fix your health in a month" kind of products regularly, you're going to be disappointed because the results are either impermanent or not even there to begin with.
The quick fix is a myth.
And you don't want a quick fix to begin with. The accounting, management and adjustment of your habits is what will make you successful in the long run. And the very fact that you will be doing these things every day is what will give them solidity. Habits tend to be permanent once implemented and eradicating them can prove to be extremely difficult.
In fact, habits being such a powerful and often permanent force, you have to think about what you really want to accomplish. Not if, but what. The fact is, if you condense your goals into habits, you'll find it difficult not to be successful at accomplishing them. If you ask a random person on the street what their goals are, they will probably tell you that they want to do. If you then ask them what they are doing about it every day, you will also be met with a lot of red faces.
Habituation is simple, powerful and effective, yet people don't take proper advantage of it.
Aiming to accomplish your goals in this way is a real joy as well. You become good at whatever you want to. Making your daily practice of a discipline into a habit is superior to talent. Let me say that again: natural-born talent is inferior to a habit of daily practice. And so, the only thing left for you to figure out is what discipline you would like to pursue. Set your aim, habituate and accomplish. Simple as that.
TL;DR:
- If you wanna accomplish something, take a look at your habits.
- What you wanna get done is irrelevant, what you're doing to get it done is everything.
- You're the grand sum of all of your habits. Hack by a little, not by a lot, otherwise you won't hack at all.
Thank you SO MUCH for reading this all the way through. I'd be thrilled if you could help me out by following me and/or if you could spare 2 seconds to resteem.
Previous Essays:
- The Essence of Abundance: https://steemit.com/life/@bnt/bnt-report-1-the-essence-of-abundance
- Frugality Is Overrated: https://steemit.com/life/@bnt/bnt-on-money-2-frugality-is-overrated
- Experimenting Your Way To Riches: https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-3-experimenting-your-way-to-riches
- Greed Is Moronic: https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-4-greed-is-moronic
- Poverty Is A Mental Disease: https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-5-poverty-is-a-mental-disease
- Become An Adept Adapter: https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-6-become-an-adept-adapter
- Who Are You Gonna Work For?: https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-7-who-are-you-gonna-work-for
- A Father Provides: https://steemit.com/fathersday/@bnt/bnt-on-money-8-a-father-provides-father-s-day-special
- Opportunity Comes A-Knockin' (Pt. I): https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-9-opportunity-comes-a-knockin-pt-i
- Opportunity Comes A-Knockin' (Pt. II): https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/bnt-on-money-9-opportunity-comes-a-knockin-pt-ii-first-post-after-hf19
- Getting Your Time Back:
https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/getting-your-time-back-or-or-bnt-on-money-11 - Let Me Teach You How To Be Lucky: https://steemit.com/money/@bnt/let-me-teach-you-how-to-be-lucky-or-or-bnt-on-money-12