Habits – The Good And The Bad!

How are your habits?

We all have them, good and bad.

My good habits? I consistently complete my prospecting tasks every week. I do a load of laundry every morning. I get up early. I write every day (Monday-Friday).

My bad habits? I’ve been hitting the “snooze” button a lot more lately. I need something sweet every afternoon. I linger in my favorite chair too long on the weekends.

You don’t know how deeply ingrained a habit is until you try to break it.

I was talking to a wise friend about this last week and she suggested making “micro” changes when you are trying to break or change a habit, or to start a new one. If you want to form a habit around exercise, instead of starting with jumping right in to an hour a day, start with a 5 minute walk each day. Keep that going until it becomes a habit, then tweak again, maybe going to 10 minutes.

When it comes to bad habits, try delaying them. Instead of hitting the snooze button today, decide that I will do it tomorrow (Mel Robbins talks about procrastinating your procrastination in her book “The Five Second Rule”). Instead of having my sweet treat when the habit hits around 2 pm, decide that I will instead have it at 3 pm. Maybe I’ll still want it then, or maybe I’ll be so busy doing something else that I won’t even notice.

Habits are funny things. They drive our subconscious into doing things good and bad. Most of my habits are centered around some sort of self soothing. My prospecting habit? Soothes my anxiety that I’m not doing enough for my business. My laundry habits? Calms my feeling of overwhelm. My weekend chair habit? It feels so good to relax and enjoy time to myself that I don’t want it to end.

Share with us some of your habits, good and bad.

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