Habits

Humans are creatures of habits. Everything we do are an offset of our habits. How we think, what we choose to do first, how we react, are terrifyingly identical day to day. Do you frequently push important tasks such as assignments until the last minute? Do you choose to have fun first before doing anything else? Do you sleep late at night everyday and having difficulties waking up the next morning?

Habits are what distinct a successful person and a mediocre. Successful person always have time to complete what seemingly impossible tasks. They always seems so full of energy to jump on the next tasks. Why so? Because they have effective habits.

I have a huge dosage of ineffective habits myself. Like sitting on assignments till deadline and frantically struggled through the last two days to complete it which caused lots of unnecessary stress on myself and people around me. Like playing games or do any other things first rather than hitting on what is needed to be done. Like spending hours and hours of my life on games and porn. Like lazing in my comfort zone... Hmm tons of them.

I had learn about that to replace the old habits, we have to induce new ones. I had learn about the science behind it and the benefits from it. Then.... Nothing happened for months! There is no motivation to do such changes. Why no motivation? Lack of clarity of what I want, lack of reason to really do it... Looking back now, I realized why many people can't seem to change their old destructive habits. Its not because they are lazy or lack of willpower (maybe some are :oP). They just don't know how to or they lacked the means to.

Fast forward to now. Personally I have adopted the following set of new habits. Wake up at 5.30am, exercise everyday (swimming on odd and jogging on even days), looking for ways to contribute everyday, collecting trash papers to recycle, picking up used plastics bottles to recycle when i see them, writing journal, writing dream journal, 25 minutes of vision training daily, meditation for 15 mins every night, reciting of affirmations twice a day. Then I have removed the following old ones. Playing of computer games, surfing of porn, masturbation, sleeping more than 8 hours, sleeping late.

Whew.... It is an amazing experience. The new habits automatically replaces the old ones as they filled in the time I emptied from old ineffective habits. By waking up at 5.30am, I feel that I have a head start in the day earlier and is able to get much more things accomplished than I originally would. I am able to channel the time and energy I originally spent in games and porn to write articles, making self improvement, readings and thinking of ways to contribute to the society.

Here's how I did it.
1) Have a strong WHY that I want a new habit. This is crucial as it is what which sustains us. When we lack a big enough why, we fail. Simple as that. No need to beat yourself over it if you can't follow through a habit.

2) Made a decision to do it. I have to decide a date to start. If I didn't, i would have kept procrastinating and maybe other days I will do it. It is most effective if I do it immediately. That will get my engine and motion into action.

3) Do a 30 day trial. It is important to be consistent during these 30 days. One must do the intended habit consecutively for these 30 days without fail. It is a easier process too as it is only 30 days. If I find it too difficult to keep it up after this 30 days, I can give it up and still feel I have accomplished something ^_^. In this 30 days you will find creative ways to fit in this habit and experience the changes needed in your lifestyle for this habit to happen. So to me 30 days is just nice.

4) Keep to one habit at a time. Give ourselves a sack. Many failed due to trying to accomplish too many at one go. Over-burn in the process. Imagine if you adopt just one new habit every month. you get 12 new ones in a year! That is a impressive life changing experience if you ask me.

5) Give myself a pat every time when I keep to my habit. Thank myself. It is sad that many time we forgot to thank ourselves. Your soul is crying for it! So say thank you to yourself for being so disciplined! Thank you to yourself for being so wonderful! Trust me. It works. If it don't, it feels good. ^0^

So have fun with creating new habits. You will see amazing changes in your life. When you find that you feel uncomfortable not doing it, you have gained yourself a new habit. Are you ready for a wild of a ride? I hope you do. Good luck ^o^