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Exploring Habits And How They Work

According to Dictionary.com, a habit is an “acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.”

This means that a habit is a behavior that is repeatedly done until you almost don’t know that you are even doing it.

It becomes like second nature to you. Back in 2010 a University College London study showed that it took an average of 66 days (i.e. over 2 months) to make a new habit virtually automatically.

Therefore, this in depthstudy tells us two very important things:

• Habits don’t become automatic overnight
• Habits cannot be broken overnight.

A habit is something that only comes via time and repeated action. We often don’t even recognize ourselves as doing a bad habit until usually someone else points it out.

The brain likes to develop these habits because it can conserve its mental energy toward another task while it engages in the habit.

Good Habits Versus Bad Habits And In Between

In truth, the only real difference between good and bad habits is that the acquired behavior pattern is a good action or a bad action as defined by the majority of society.

• You need to determine what good habits you want to adopt, then repeat the good action that constitutes that habit repeatedly until you do it automatically without realizing it.
• You need to recognize the bad habits you want to abolish, then avoid repeating the bad action that constitutes that habit continuously until you automatically do an alternative action instead that is considered better than that bad action.

It will take time to “rewire” your brain to dispose of the bad habit and take up the new good habit.

Actions that take more effort will take a longer period of time to adopt as habits compared to those actions that take less effort.

Define Bad Habits And Phase Them Out Of Your Life

Bad habits are behaviors considered bad by most of society and are repeatedly done by the person.We become so immune to the action because it seems so natural to us that others usually have to point out the action to us.

Breaking or overriding the bad habit will NOT be an overnight process, and depending on quickly you adopt new habits and the complexity of the action(s) involved, could take a few weeks to several months to adopt the new habit.

How To Form Good Habits And Make Them Stick

When you have a bad habit and want to replace it with a good habit, you need to consciously be aware of the bad habit and know what action you need to change to turn the bad habit into the good habit.

• We need to determine what alternative action we must take to eliminate the bad action.
• We must repeat the positive action many times before it will become ingrained in our actions and we start doing this new behavior automatically without realizing it.

This is when the bad habit will be erased and the good habit is established.

Set Up A Support System To Stay On Track

It’s quite possible you will do the old bad habit a number of times while trying to integrate the new good habit to override the bad habit.

• A support system can be helpful in ensuring you stay on track into integrating the new habit into your regular routine.
• A support system can include family and friends who can check in on you and ensure you’re sticking with the new good habit.
• A support system can include a memory device, such as tying a piece of string around your forefinger, to remind you to do the good action/behavior, not the bad action/behavior.

Start Small And Create Wealth One New Habit At A Time

Most people will attempt to make massive changes to their lives instead of just trying to make one simple change.

The problem with the massive change approach is that people often try to do too much, get overwhelmed, lose motivation and enthusiasm for it, then revert back to their old habits and routines.

It’s better to successfully integrate a new habit instead of trying to implement 3-5 new habits and only doing them occasionally, while still doing your old habits here and there.

• The amount of effort needed to successfully implement a new habit will directly impact how much time it takes to successfully implement that new habit.
• If the new habit you want to adopt is complex and substantial, you should expect to take more time to successfully integrate it into your regular routine.

Each new habit you want to integrate into your regular routine is something you believe will help you to improve your life and build your wealth, but that will NOT happen if you don’t successfully integrate it.
Take the required time necessary to ensure that a new habit is successfully integrated into your routine.

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Different Types of Motivation

There are two main types of

• Intrinsic (internal) motivation
• extrinsic (external) motivation

There are also many different sources of motivation including:

• Incentive
• Fear
• Achievement
• Growth
• Power
• Social

All types and sources can lead to positive or negative actions.

Different sources of motivation inspire different people; one type of motivation will not inspire all people.

Set Goals That Interest You

People need to learn what makes them “tick” when it comes to what interests them.

What inspires you to really raise your game and increase your performance, focus, and effort to attain your goals?

Really evaluate yourself and see what inspires and motivates you to push yourself harder and reach for your goals.

Once you can answer what form(s) of motivation inspire(s) you to reach farther and work harder, you will have an easier time knowing what goals will interest you and inspire you to work harder and do more.

Find Inspiration In What Surrounds You

Inspiration is defined by Dictionary.com as “a thing or person that inspires.”

We all will experience periods of lower motivation, especially if we are experiencing less success than we anticipated or moving more slowly toward our goals than we anticipated.

• The key is to keep the motivation high, as it’s really our “fuel” to attain the goals we want to achieve.

We need to look around at our environment and see who or what can inspire to keep our motivation and enthusiasm up to attain our goals.

There are often many examples that can help us improve our performance.

If, by chance, there aren’t any forms of inspiration in your environment, or if these examples aren’t helping enough, that may indicate you need to change your environment (i.e. change your job, move to a new location, etc.).

Establish A Successful Mindset

It’s virtually impossible for anyone to do their best work and achieve the goals they want when they have a negative outlook.

It is vital you have a positive, successful mindset in order to give you the best chance to achieve the goals you wish to accomplish.

Look back upon your life and think about your recent successes to help boost your outlook and mindset.

Talk to family/friends/psychologist/counselor to help boost your outlook and mindset if you need external help.Listen to inspirational music and CDs/DVDs to help improve your outlook and mindset.

Align Your Values With Your Work

We need to know what motivates us to strive harder for our goals and achieve them.We also need to know what we truly value so that we can be driven by it.

• We all have an innate tendency to not work as hard or not do as much for a company if their values run contrary to ours.

To work hard for achievement, incentive, and even out of fear for a company whose values run contrary to ours would cause us to not be true to ourselves, which hurts our motivation.

When you work for a company or run a business that appreciates the same values that you do, you feel more inspired and motivated to do more for that company or business, to strive more for them to succeed.
This leads to you wanting to achieve more and grow more, as you are being true to yourself and advancing the causes and values you believe in.

When you work for a company or run a business whose values align with yours, it’s likely you will meet people who have similar values, which can magnify your power and influence to affect your power in a way that brings your values and ideals to the world at large more easily.

Surround Yourself With Successful People

When we are surrounded by successful people, their positive “can-do” attitude, inspiration, and habits can rub off on us and improve our ability to perform the tasks we need to complete in order to achieve our goals.