Our everyday behaviour is made up of the habits that we have built up over the course of our life.
- If you would like help developing useful habits, come to the next IMPACT Goal setting workshop to find out how.
Habits can be hard to change.
It is relatively easy to create new ones, but much more difficult to change established ones.
Some of these habits are useful, others not.
There are several things that you can do to help you set up useful new habits.
The first thing to view useful habits as adding to your life rather than detracting from it, and poor habits as stealing your life.
My friend and speaking guru, Sean Kennedy, says, “Work on the business not in the business.”
I love this phrase, because it says treat yourself as your own business and work on making it the best it can be.
The second is to set up an environment that enables success.
A simple way to do this is to make useful habits that you want to have easy to do, and poor habits hard.
Shawn Achor describes in The Happiness Advantage how he went to lengths to do this.
He wanted to make exercising first thing in the morning easy to do, so slept in his training gear with his running shoes by his bed.
He wanted to learn an instrument so put it in the most accessible place in the centre of his living room.
He knew that he needed to stop his habit of automatically turning on the TV when he came into the room, because it would distracting him from practising, so hid his remote control – after he had taken the batteries out and hidden them!
The third thing is to make yourself accountable.
You are more likely to do something if you make yourself accountable by declaring that you are going to do it.
This is because if you do not do it, you may suffer a loss of face.
Now I think that there is a balance to strike with this in just how public to be.
A great way to make yourself accountable whilst not being too exposed is to ask someone to be your Success Partner.
This might be a friend, family member or a Life Coach.
They can help you establish good habits by challenging you to set up the habit and by motivating you when the going gets tough.
If you would like support changing habits, then come to the next IMPACT Goal course.