The only difference between you and a successful person are the smart habits you create that will ultimately lead to your daily success.
People often think that it’s the ultimate reward that create the smart habits.
The truth is, it’s the smart habits that create the ultimate reward.
A habit is a routine behavior, regularly repeated, that tends to occur subconsciously.
The creation of a subconsciousness routine is the key to a great and successful habit.
I’ve spent the later part of 20 years exercising at least four times a week. I never have to think about it.
I’m always at the gym, and at the exact same time almost every day.
I never have to give a passing thought as to what I’m going to be doing this time of the day.
The smart habit should be so ingrained into your mind, body, and soul that you don’t have to spend a single cognitive thought on the task at hand, leading to daily success.
For many people they begin with the end goal, a certain amount of weight loss perhaps.
They try a few diets, and workout out for a few months. They may get there, they may not. But after they reach their goal, they quit.
Now let’s look at a successful person’s way to reach a goal. They begin with the habits in mind.
They know that eating right and exercising, consistently over time, will lead to the results they are looking for.
The first person has based his habits on the reward, while the second person knows they will reap the rewards because of their habits.
If you look closely at the subtle differences, person number 2 has created a lifestyle change using his habits and is in it for the long haul. He knows if he puts the work in, he will reap the reward over and over and over, hopefully for the rest of his life.
Person number one may lose the weight, but I guarantee they will put it back on, often putting on more than what they started with in the first place.
Smart habits are what always leads to daily success in the end.
Stephen Covey’s 1st habit of highly effective people is to “Be proactive.”
Currently, this step is the hardest part, going from doing nothing to doing something.
It seems almost impossible to be proactive in a world where our attention is getting pulled in a million different directions.
So how do we consistently create habits for ourselves, when it’s so hard to even get off the couch for a bathroom break during an episode of Game of Thrones?
Try these 3 steps to:
Create Smart Habits that Result in Daily Success
Step #1 You must create an environment conducive to the success of your goal.
The first thing to do to create smart habits is to create an environment conducive to the success of your goal.
Let’s look at flossing your teeth for example.
Most mornings or evenings, I go into the bathroom intending to brush and floss my teeth. The toothbrush is available, the floss is not.
How many times do I brush my teeth? Every day.
How many times do I floss? Maybe once or twice a week, tops.
So why did I brush every time, and only floss some of the time, even when I intend to floss at least once a day?
It’s because the toothbrush was easily accessible. It was sitting right there on the counter in front of my face.
You will choose the path of least resistance almost every time.
In order to develop a habit, you need to create a queue for yourself that you can follow every instance that the habit is made available.
Every time you go to brush your teeth, you see that toothbrush sitting on the counter and you brush.
Next time put the floss right next to the toothbrush and create a new habit for yourself.
Step #2 Create a welcoming, easily accessible, easily visible queue for every habit.
If you need to workout in the morning, putting your alarm by your workout area, along with a cup of water and a towel could be your queue for exercising.
Preparing your food and placing it in containers at the front of your refrigerator for you to easily grab and eat could be the way to make eating healthy a subconscious habit.
This is the point where you need to evaluate every step of your day.
Do you hit the snooze on the alarm 10 times in the morning?
Are you going out for lunch every day?
Do you get home from work and plop in front of the television for three hours every night?
How do you eliminate a bad habit?
You get rid of the source of the bad habit all together and/or replace it with a good habit.
If you’re constantly drawn to the television, get rid of it. Or at least put it in front of some exercise equipment instead of couches and chairs. Know that every time you are going to watch television, you are going to cycle for the entire episode.
If you’re going to hit your alarm 10 times a morning, you obviously have 15 minutes to get your workout in. Set your alarm up next to your workout area, get up, drink some water and go work out.
Make sure every habit you want to create is always placed right in front of your face.
Step #3 Develop and advance the habits you’ve created over time
Once you’ve created your daily and weekly habits, you need to get into the “habit” of developing and progressing your created habits.
Although you are doing them subconsciously, you need to evaluate them and make them better as you go.
If you do this consistently, at some point you will find that you have created a professional work habit that makes the goal you are going for extremely easy to attain.
If you find yourself going to the gym everyday just to do the same workout you did last week, you will never progress.
Always be thinking:
“What can I do to make my workout more efficient?”
“What’s a better exercise than the one I am doing right now?”
“Am I progressing from week to week or am I staying stagnant?”
Be mindful about your habits. They are going to be the crank that churns the butter.
Summary: How to Create Smart Habits and Daily Success (3 Steps)
If you want to get where you want to go, you need to put in the habitual work hours. Most of this can be developed to be done subconsciously. It’s getting yourself to go from nothing to something that’s the hardest part. Create that queue. Turn bad habits into good ones. Re-evaluate and progress. Make the most of your time. The ones who are most successful in life don’t waste time. They are putting in the hours, and 80% of the time, they don’t even have to think about what they must do to become successful; it’s already ingrained in their daily habits.
Do you have a hard time building good habits and breaking bad ones? Let me know your journey in the comments!!
