Harness the Power of Habits

Getting up early can become a habit.  So can getting up late and staying up late.  Complaining can become a habit.  Spending more than you earn can become a habit; so can putting a piece of every paycheck into a retirement account.  Looking for the positive side of every challenge can become a habit, so can finding the cloud in every silver lining. - Jeff Olson

Since we've been talking a lot about how success in any pursuit is the result of minute actions repeated consistently over time, those minute actions repeated consistently become routine or habit.  Rachel Bruner has a great collection of tools that are very useful to create a good habit or end a bad one.  They are simple templates you can print out, put somewhere you'll see it multiple times a day and allow you to check off each successful day.  Once you have repeated the action consistently for more than 21 days you can consider the action a new habit and can move on from them with a new habit or you can track that same action for a full year using another chart.

I created a few templates in Excel since I wanted to combine more goals on a single sheet of paper.  If you are interested, email me and I'll shoot you a copy.

So in summary, write down the new, wonderful habits you want to create and make routine in your lives.  Post them on your bathroom mirror, fridge or next to your computer screen.  Mark off each day you repeat your new habits.  Also, before you go to bed, be sure to review your progress and make plans to repeat your success the next day.  By reviewing this just before going to sleep, your subconscious mind will go to work all night long and help you be more successful the next day!