Developing good habits and breaking bad habits

Are you ready for shock treatment? Well, not the old school shock treatment, but the one where you take inventory of who you are and suddenly you are shocked by what you find. Yeah, its time to take inventory on your habits because if you haven’t, you won’t know how to develop good habits while breaking bad habits (related topic: “Breaking Bad Habits“).

In our “Success and Opportunity Readiness Track” podcast, we discuss ‘taking inventory’. Creating a balance sheet of the things that you are good at, and the things that you might need to work on. These are your assets and liabilities. Some of your liabilities could be bad habits, like procrastination, laziness, hitting the snooze button 3 times every morning, or even watching just a little too much TV.

Well, its time to create a “good habit – bad habit” balance sheet. It’s good to do something different when you want to achieve self improvement (related topic: “Self Improvement Tips – Do something different“). Well, today, or starting tomorrow morning, it is time to do something different and create your “good habit – bad habit” balance sheet!

Take a day, a normal day, and take inventory of your habits. This is all about self awareness and you need to be able to consciously ‘catch yourself’ in the act. It’s a tool to use for depression as well – to catch yourself when you start feeling down and track back to what triggered this emotion. So it takes practice.

So observe those bad habits and write them down.

WHAT? You don’t have any?

Okay… lets just list a few just to get you to open your mind a little.

Procrastination
Over indulgence
20 minute breaks instead of 15
Watching TV
Watching TV while eating ice cream
Spending hours online surfing the web
Spending too much time on your Fantasy Baseball Team
Yelling at the kids because you had a bad day
Sleeping in
Skipping breakfast (yes –this is a bad health habit!)
Drinking too much coffee
Making an excuse to not exercise
Getting into work late
Driving too fast
Texting while driving

Need I say more? List one and another two pop up. List two and another four are remembered. This is your day and it could be a list of bad habits all day long that you did not know existed.

Motivation Quote: “First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you.” Rob Gilbert

By following our “Success and Opportunity Readiness Track” you will discover 12 (+a bonus) habits that you can do to replace the bad habits. It’s the daily dozen that can get you started forming good habits as you begin replacing and breaking the bad habits.

Okay, now that you’ve got a personal ‘book’ written on your bad habits you do during the day, ask yourself how much better your day would be if you didn’t do all of the above!

Your day changes significantly! Look at those bad habits – does it create a positive change in your life or a negative? As you discover that you can get rid of one or two, different things can take its place.

Instead of finding the need to text while driving, put your phone aside and concentrate on an educational Book on CD. Instead of making and excuse not to exercise, find a reason why you will exercise. Instead of getting to work late and feeling stressed, get there a little earlier – which means not hitting snooze on the snooze button, getting up earlier so that you can have breakfast, and with a good breakfast, the need for caffeine is diminished.

See how all this works?

Now apply the good habits to your daily life. It could be anything, but in this case, lets take the CreateYourMind Daily Dozen.

CREATE YOUR MIND’S DAILY DOZEN PLUS ONE

1. STAY ON TRACK (100% PRODUCTIVITY)
Ask yourself “am I being 100% productive doing what I’m doing RIGHT NOW?”

2. DAILY LIST (5) THEN EAT THE FROG!
Look at your 5 tasks and do the toughest/most challenging one first!

3. ACCOUNTABILITY CHECK (TAG TEAM)
Find an accountability partner and check in daily or weekly

4. COMPARE YOURSELF TO YOU
Don’t compare yourself to those above or those below or those across from you – it doesn’t matter!

5. ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
Be thankful!!!

6. MAXIMIZE ASSETS (YOU, INC)
List your strengths and weaknesses! Maximize assets and work on making your liabilities better!

7. CLEAN OUT DIRTY WATER (READ/LISTEN)
Read 15 minutes a day or 10 pages a day and listen to educational CDs in your car every single time you drive!

8. BRAINSTORM (20 IN 5)
Every morning – write 20 ideas in 5 minutes – don’t edit yourself, just write!

9. COUNSEL YOUR HIGHER POWER
Pray!

10. THE WORRY BUSTER
What is the worst thing that can happen? Accept it. Work to never let it happen!

11. BE A GOOD RECEIVER
Say THANK YOU and nothing else! (SMILE)

12. ASK FOR HELP
Check your ego at the door and ask someone for help!

13. (BONUS) THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT
What is in your thoughts when you are sitting there doing a mindless activity? Like waiting in line, in the bathroom, watching TV, pondering life…

That’s pretty much a much-needed recap to our podcast series, “The Success and Opportunity Readiness Track“!

Take a good long look at each of these good habits – there are only 13! I’m sure you can find a way to replace 13 bad habits with these good habits!

So step one – take inventory of your bad habits as soon as possible. Then look at how you would like to see your day – if you get rid of the bad habits. Then apply our CreateYourMind daily dozen throughout the day. If you listen to the podcasts you can get great coaching and details on how each one can be done each and every day!

This will lead to good habits breaking the bad habits. It will always be a constant struggle, but a battle that can always be won if you stay focused and committed to having a better more successful, productive life. Its simple, people! Really simple. It may not be easy at first, but it is simple!

More “Good Habits” Articles:

Other related articles:
“Breaking Bad Habits”
“Good Habits – Think like a Winner and not like a Whiner”
“Good Habits – Deep Breathing and its Health Benefits”

Check out these great programs to success:
Goal Setting Template – what are goals?
How to change your life – Six Minutes to Success
Achieve Success – Kick Excuses Goodbye!

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