I read an interesting explanation of the word HABIT. When we remove the letter ‘H’, you’ll have “a bit” remaining. Remove the letter ‘A’, you will have “bit” remaining.Remove the letter ‘B’, you will have “it” remaining.
The essence of it is that habits are tough to be forgotten. This is a fact of life.
Imagine having good habits only. Point 1 they will stay with you longer. Point 2 you will become a better person due to them.
The key then is to identify which habits are good and which are bad. Well, there is one easy way to differentiate them.
Habits which give instantaneous results are predominantly bad. This might not be the case for all of them but is true in 90% of the scenarios.
Let’s try to understand with few examples.
Example –
- Cigarette smoking habit. Very addictive. Gives instant relaxation and impact on the smoker’s attitude.
- Healthy eating habit – We live healthier for an extended duration of time when compared to junk food eaters.
- Sleeping in – This is a popular and common bad habit. People who often oversleep tend to be late to various aspects of their daily life.
- Early rising habit – People who wake up early in the morning usually prioritise and plan their day. Thereby, they live happier and better lives.
The above four examples establish that a good habit’s impact can be seen with a longer duration of time, such as say a year or a decade. While the result of bad habits can be seen instantly or within a week.
Oxford dictionary defines success as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”.
This is a lot to process, right?
Let’s take a look at what people generally perceive as a success for a person.
- Earning a lot of money
- Being respected by people
- Having lots of followers online and offline
There 100 more reasons or conceptions of success but the above are the important ones.
So let’s derive a simple formula for success.
Completion of one’s goals and targets = success.
Now let’s get to goals & target formation.
Oxford dictionary defines a goal as – “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result”.
So what is your ambition or desire?
Please put your ambition or desire in life in terms of words, on a piece of paper.
Now accomplishing your goal or ambition or desire is going to be your success in the short term.
So let’s get to planning it.
For any goal to be accomplished, you have to estimate the amount of effort you need to put in.
Similarly, you will have to put in a time frame of when you will be able to execute and achieve it.
For example:
Goal – Save 1 million dollars to buy a home and retire early.
The effort required – Save more of your income + look towards ways to earn more money.
Time frame – Save 1 million dollars in 5 years from now.
Based on the above, let’s make a goal statement.
Goal Statement – Save 1 million dollars by saving more and earning more in the next 5 years, to buy a home and retire early.
This is how you easily plan your short term goals in life.
Now let’s get back to the topic at hand.
To be successful, you have to achieve your goals. To do that you have to work hard as per your execution plan and goal statement.
The key lies in the process.
The sooner you will start following the process, the closer you will get to achieving your goals and thereby, success.
The obvious question now is how to follow a process to execute your goal statement flawlessly.
Use gadgets, apps, tools and technology to help you make form habits.
Habits are the key.
And technology can you with your habit formation.
Let’s see a few examples of it.
- Google calendar – Plan your day early in the morning. This will give you enough time to think things through clearly. Enter your routine tasks as well. In your everyday tasks, add a new activity to build the habit. Such tasks get done. Using Google Calendar can help get things done faster.
- Timer/Reminder/Alarm – Set timers for task execution. This can help you understand your ability to complete it within the expected time or not. Set reminders to see if you have done as per your plan or process. If not, make a list of things you need to do differently to achieve your objective or goal.
Why inserting new habits into old ones can help do the new one better?
Who all can help you be motivated and deliver your new habit?
Can small habits result in massive growth?
Make the following as habits and see the impact yourself:
- Take care of a plant. Water it regularly, either daily or four times a week
- Try and help at least 3 people in a week
- Every time you are upset, donate 0.01% of your income to someone in need
- Visit a place of power, it can be a meditation hall, temple, mosque, church or even a park where you feel there is good energy
- Stop yourself from telling lies for completely unnecessary things
The above 5 habits are easy to execute. Just do them for 40 days and see the impact.
Please feel free to add your comments. Let’s make our lives beautiful.