How to Change Your Life by Changing Your Daily Habits

 

How to Change Your Life by Changing Your Daily Habits

What do you think about your life? Do you believe that, because of other people or unfavorable circumstances, you're not living the life you'd like to? If you believe that a dream is just a dream and it never will come true, you are wrong. You're just letting your life pass you by without even trying to give it a meaning. Finally, why are you living for?

We learn and acquire habits during all our life.

Habits are those familiar and automated actions resulted from learning processes.

Any task or action we learn how to do and then perform repeatedly transforms into a habit. This is the mechanism through which we get used to do a lot of (good or bad!) things like: walking, cycling, reading, witting, driving a car, using the computer, smoking, watching TV, drinking coffee, hanging on forums or Facebook, etc.

Among all the actions we perform on a daily basis, good habits are those having favorable influence on our lives, while bad habits are the actions resulting in negative outcomes for us and for people close to us as well. Bad habits are usually called addictions.

But let me make a distinction here. Letting addictions aside, we can further split all our daily habits in habits which add in our personal development and habits which are just wasting our time.

Think a little bit of everything you do daily. What are you doing every morning, then during the time you spend at the office, and when you're back home in the evening?

Now ask yourself: will your life be different if you change any of your daily actions? If, instead of watching TV for two hours in the evening you read a book or learn something new on a subject that interest you, will anything change in your life? Or, if every morning you work out for a half an hour, will anything be different?

Have you ever thought about changing something in your life such as starting a new career, learning a foreign language or getting more fit?

Maybe you have even attempted to do new things or change old behavior patterns, but your enthusiasm didn't last too long. And you gave up.

It happened because habits are actions we make unconsciously. We just feel like we need to do a certain thing without asking ourselves why we have to or what is in it for us.

There are important changes in our lives that compel us to modify at least a part of our habits. This arrives for instance when we finish school and start working or when we get married, or leave our parents' home and move in our own place. In all these cases, we cut sharply the connection with an old familiar environment and have to adapt to a new one. When we feel at ease in our new environment, it means that the new habits are installed.

In most cases, this process takes place without us being aware of.

Now the question is: can we make consciously changes in our daily habits? How can we deliberately change our habits and overcome their resistance?

Changes in our daily habits are not only possible, but also advisable to be done when we decide to make bigger changes in our lives.

We firstly need to evaluate all the actions we are doing during the day, think about and decide which ones are good to be kept or even extended and which need to be replaced with better ones.
Secondly, through a step by step process, we are going to start making the desired changes.

It is very important to not overdue. Don't start with more than one habit and, at the beginning, my advice is to perform the new action for short time spans, then increase the time gradually. Once you have the first habit installed (it will probably take 1-2 months), introduce a new one. Making small steps every day is the best way to succeed.

Be prepared to overcome setbacks over time because habits are usually strong enough to not let us change them easily.

Make a plan and follow it, and be patient and persistent. Trust the method and be proactive.
In a few weeks you'll be proud of yourself, self-confident and ready to take on new challenges.