Do Your Daily Habits Support You In Achieving Your Goals?

What are the things that you do consistently on a daily or weekly basis? These are things that are likely habits you have formed in your life. There is both good news and bad news when it comes to habits. The good news is that the right habits can help propel you towards the things you want to achieve in your life. The bad news is that the wrong habits can really hold you back from the things you want to achieve in your life.

For example, you may have good habits around getting up in the morning, getting organized for your day, planning what you want to accomplish, and sticking to the plan. These are all examples of positive habits that will help you achieve what you want to achieve. Instead, you could also have a habit of numbing out watching television at night, staying up too late, waking up late, being rushed in the morning, and not having time to take the action you need to be taking in order to achieve your goals. In each of these situations, the daily habits mentioned will contribute to the results you will get in your life.

Taking time to inventory what habits you already have in place can be really helpful. Take some time to think about what things you do pretty automatically each day and/or week and make a list. Next, write out the goals you have for yourself. What are the things you want to achieve over the next month, quarter, and year? Then, go back to your list of habits and indicate whether they move you towards or away from your goals. If they move you towards your goals, great job! If they are not moving you towards your goals, now is an opportunity to make some changes, and I will offer some suggestions for how to do this.

How to start positive habits that will move you towards your goals while “crowding out” negative habits that do not support your goals or that move you away from your goals.

• Be informed. The good news is if you did the exercise above, you are already informed about what habits you currently have in place, which ones are positive, and which ones you want to work to eliminate.

• Make a commitment. Make a commitment to yourself to change some of your habits. Getting started is the hardest part, however, once you start to establish a habit, things get much easier.

• Write down the habit(s) you want to “crowd you”. What I mean by this is, rather than just stopping it cold turkey, I am going to help you slowly “crowd it out” negative habits with new, positive habits which will make it easier to make the changes you are looking to make.

• Write down what you can start to do slowly, instead. We often give up on changes we are trying to make because we try to make dramatic changes that leave us feeling uncomfortable and/or overwhelmed. When you start to create a new habit slowly, you are more likely to stick with it. For example, if you are trying to start an exercise routine, if you go from nothing to trying to workout  thirty to sixty minutes per day, you are more likely to be overwhelmed and give up after a week or two (or less). However, if you start with just five to ten minutes per day, you are far more likely to stick with it because it does not feel so overwhelming. In this instance, you are “crowding out” the habit of being sedentary by exercising for ten minutes per day.

• Once you are engaging in your new habit consistently, you can start to increase the time or intensity of what you are doing, if necessary. With exercise, you may add on an additional five minutes every week or two. With staying up late watching television, you may decide to go to bed and get up fifteen minutes earlier each week until you are on the schedule that is going to best support your goals. If you were looking to be more organized, you can start with taking five to ten minutes after dinner each night to pick up or organize something in your home.

• Celebrate the wins and give yourself grace. Every day that you do your new habit, you are strengthening it. Be sure you are giving yourself credit for the effort you are putting in and being gentle on the days that don't go so well. The longer you have been doing the negative habit you want to stop, the longer it will take to “undo” it. What matters is that you stay focused and work on your new habit consistently. Whether you are trying to stay more organized, eat less, eat healthier, drink less, yell less, wake up earlier, read more, watch less television, exercise more, spend less time on social media, communicate better with your partner, grow your business, get to work on time, save more money, start a gratitude practice, or really anything you want to do…focus and consistency is what will get you there.

• Every day is a new opportunity to work on your new habit. You don’t have to wait until Monday, the first of the month, or January to start your new habit. Go through these steps and make a commitment to start within the next forty-eight hours. Part of what will happen when you start and keep working on your habit consistently is that you will gain the secondary habit of keeping your promises to yourself and there is no bigger gift you can give yourself.

 You’ve got this!!!

Do you want a little extra support? Check out my FREE 5 Day Challenge to Creating a Positive Habit HERE. You will get a workbook and short, daily videos from me for 5 days where I will walk you through the process for how to form a positive habit in more detail. I will provide additional tips and strategies so that you are successful in making the changes you are seeking. This works and it is life changing!

Live you best boss lady life!

~ Karen