Four Habits That Will Change Your Life (but are hard AF to put into practice)
Photo by Malvestida Magazine on Unsplash
Four habits that will change your life (but are hard AF to actually practice)
Your current lot in life — your health, your happiness, your wealth — is a direct result of your habits. What is a habit? A habit is a recurring thought, feeling, or action. A habit happens on auto-pilot. Like brushing your teeth…you don’t need to think about how to do it, or even when. You just do it a certain way at a certain time every day.
Habits are good and necessary because if we had to think about every decision we need to make in a day, life would be impossible. Can you imagine if you had to put an immense amount of thought into how you wash your hair? Or when and how to wipe your rear end after going to the bathroom? Exhausting! The trouble with habits is that they sometimes keep us in our comfort zone, which can prevent accomplishing bigger things or reaching for higher goals.
Is it possible to teach an old dog new tricks? Yes! But no one said it would be easy.
The four simple habits that will change your life…but that you won’t actually want to do
1. Never hit the snooze button. Ever. The tone of your day is set during the first 10 minutes of your feet hitting the floor. If you’ve hit the snooze button five times, you are already “postponing” your day (i.e. procrastinating), which sends a powerful message to your brain about how the rest of your day will go. You are also suddenly late and in a mad rush. This virtually guarantees you will spend the rest of your day scattered, rushing, and procrastinating.
I’m a huge fan of the Mel Robbins 5-second rule. If you give yourself more than 5 seconds to think about whether or not you’re going to get up, you won’t. Your brain will talk you out of it. So 5-4-3-2-1 get your ass out of bed! Do yourself a favor and listen to Mel Robbins’s powerful Tedx Talk How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over. And stop screwing your day over by getting up!
2. Get up 10 minutes earlier. Ugh. Geez. I just told you never to hit the snooze button…and now I’m telling you to get up earlier?!? Before you tell me to go f@ck myself, hear me out. The most successful people in the world report that they get up early and have very specific morning routines. Remember: the first 10 minutes of your day sets the tone for the rest of the day…so make it count!
Is 10 minutes enough? Yes! More time is better. But you need a starting point and 10 minutes is better than no minutes. Stay tuned! For next week’s blog post, I’ll be covering a 10-minute morning routine that will change your life! Until then and for the rest of this week, your goal is to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier. Get your body used to it. By next Thursday you can incorporate my 10-minute morning suggestions!
3. Decide what time you will stop working every day. This one is especially important for the entrepreneurs who set their own schedules and have never-ending to-do lists. Time is like a vacuum. Checking emails, updating websites, and fielding client phone calls will easily fill all of your time if you don’t set clear boundaries.
Decide what time you’ll stop working so that you can spend time with your family or do something other than work. The added bonus of setting boundaries: you will get more work done in less time. Here’s what I mean: I publish my blog every Thursday. That means I have 7 whole days to write the next post. How many days do you think it takes me to write the post? Seven days. I procrastinate and “think about it” for six and then bust out a blog post in two hours on Thursday morning. Point: much can be accomplished in a short amount of time with a clear-cut deadline.
4. Turn off all distractions for at least one meal every day. We all claim to love food so much – and 70% of Americans are overweight because of our supposed “love” for food – but 90% of the time we aren’t even paying enough attention to at even enjoy food! When was the last time you actually tasted your food? Can you remember the last time you ate a meal without distractions? That means no TV, no phone, no music, no scrolling Facebook, no working, no reading, and no driving.
Did you know that your brain does not actually register that you’ve eaten if you eat while doing anything else? That’s right. Your brain needs to get the full experience of eating to send the “all full” signal. If you are not fully experiencing the sight, smell, taste, texture, and even the sound of food, your brain will continue to send hunger signals. Being present while you eat can be a game changer for your health and weight. Suddenly you can hear the quiet inner voice that says “Pssst! I’m full, you can stop eating now!”
Photo by Chris Curry on Unsplash
Creating or changing a single habit can change the trajectory of your life
The habits above are simple, right? I bet you’re so motivated right now that you’re vowing to put all of them into practice. Stop. Think. Choose one. Start with a single habit change. The second you begin trying too hard or get overwhelmed, all bets are off, and you’ll go right back to your comfort zone! This is why I almost never tell people to work on diet and exercise simultaneously. It’s too much, too painful, and almost always leads to giving up.
Work on one thing. One small positive change in the right direction causes good feelings, and can lead to a snowball effect that leads to more positive actions!
Blog Author: Kelly Bailey, IIN certified holistic nutrition coach, and NPTI certified personal trainer
Learn more about the author here.
