Habits are essential for long-term success.
So why are new ones so difficult to maintain?
The answer is our brains.
The primitive part of our brains hates two things...change and using energy.
Creating a habit requires both.
For example, think about brushing your teeth.
When you were young, your brain really had to think about it…. How much toothpaste do I use? Am I brushing correctly? Did I brush long enough?
On top of that, you probably had to be nagged by your parents to do it every night.
Then after a while, it's AUTOMATIC. It's something that we now do every day without any effort involved.
This is what we are trying to create when it comes to new habits to achieve desired outcomes.
What is it that you desire? Would you like to become a better wife, mom, employee? Would you like to be more productive? Do you want to lose weight?
Independent of what you want to accomplish, the first and most important habit you will need to start creating is to prep your mind for success each morning.
Below are some suggestions of how you can do that:
1. Clean up your mind by doing a thought download.
Put all of your thoughts onto a piece of paper, eliminate all the garbage thoughts that are not serving you like, "I have too much to do today. I don't know where to start",
"Today will be one of those days."
2. Decide on purpose what you want to focus on for the day.
You could use prayer or some form of meditation to guide your thoughts.
Focus gives us direction, helps us stay the course, avoids distraction, and helps us find more evidence to support what we believe to be true, creating habits to support it.
3. Write what you want to believe on purpose and your focus on your phone or a place that you often see throughout the day. Keep a prayer in your heart. You can set an alarm every so often to remind you or use a reminder app.
4. Practice, practice, practice till it becomes automatic. At first, your brain will want to resist and go back to the old habits, but if you stay with it, eventually, the new habit will become your brain's "go-to."
This practice will only take 5 -8 minutes of your day and allow you to live intentionally and achieve your goals.
Warning: Expect significant resistance. Resistance presents itself when you are ready to go to the next level. At first, you will probably think I don't have time for this; I can't add one more thing to my to-do list; I don't want to wake up any earlier than I already do... You will have to challenge those thoughts and think of all the obstacles your brain will come up with and create strategies. Remember, resistance means go.
I would love to work with you on this.
If you’re interested, check out my website at franciniestes.com e signup for a free coaching session.
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