Habits are an interesting thing. They are formed based on the choices we make.
There are good habits and then, there are bad habits. According to one online definition, a habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.”
A habit is also described as “a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance.”
What are the habits you have that serve you and which work against you?
During the 30-day Turnaround Challenge you have the opportunity to break a bad habit and replace it with a healthy habit.
Become Aware of Your Habits
Humans tend to be creatures of habit, or more specifically, routines. Most people have morning routines also known as rituals, habits, ingrained behaviors. And most never think about what they are doing.
For example…
Get out of bed. Sleepwalk to the restroom. Sleepwalk to the kitchen. Mindlessly brew up a cup of coffee. Stare off into space
until the coffee kicks in. Jump in the shower. Get dressed. Head out for work or the home office. Rinse and repeat daily.
For many people the first part of their day is a blur. It’s done by rote. It’s a mindless routine. It’s a habit.
Imagine if you were to be fully conscious from the minute you woke up. Imagine if you were to change out your morning routine for a habit that worked in your favor.
During the 30-Day Turnaround Challenge, you do have an opportunity to transform your life by consciously thinking about what you have committed to. This is the perfect time to exchange a bad habit for a great one.
But it takes more than thinking about and talking about the commitment. It takes action.
The Miracle Morning
Not long ago, I made a commitment to work on a new morning habit. I was inspired to do this when I found the works of Hal Elrod. Hal wrote a book called, The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8 AM).
Intrigued, I got the Kindle version of Hal’s book. In a nutshell, Hal shares his own story about how he transformed his life by incorporating a morning ritual consisting of six pillars. He uses the acronym SAVERS to make it easy to remember the process.
SAVERS is about incorporating 10 minutes each of Silences, Affirmations, Visioning, Exercise, Reading, Scribing (writing) first thing in the morning.
When I say first thing, I mean it. For many people, they jump right into checking emails and social media as their morning ritual. The challenge with starting your day this way is that you can quickly chase down endless rabbit holes.
Before you know it, hours have passed, and you haven’t accomplished much of anything other than getting frustrated with the condition of the world or getting involved in a thread on Facebook that has no redeeming value.
Since beginning The Miracle Morning process, I’ve found myself being very productive. As someone who is already incredibly productive, I was astonished with the improvements I experienced.
It’s somewhat counter-intuitive that using an hour first thing in the morning to lay the foundation for the day would actually increase my productivity, but it has.\Granted, I had to be willing to “find” this extra hour. How did I do it? By setting my alarm for 4:44 a.m. to assure I would be done with the process by 6 a.m.
Within a few days of incorporating Hal’s recommendations into my morning routine, I decided to start a 30-Day Turnaround Challenge for anyone who wants to join in. The whole idea with the 30-Day Turnaround Challenge is to find one thing I could commit to for 30 days.
In addition to The Miracle Morning ritual, I added in 30 minutes of non-interrupted writing time on my memoir.
Immediately upon completing the hour of the MM, I set my phone timer for 30 minutes. This assures I stay focused on writing for the full time I’ve committed to.
Amazingly, not only have my days become more productive, I’ve also gotten a great deal of writing done on my manuscript.
The bottom-line is this, our habits either serve us or work against us. You can let life happen to you or you can take full responsibility for creating the life you say you want through the habits you develop.
The choice is yours.
