“Procrastination is a thief of time.” I read that in a Reader’s Digest many years ago, and have thought about it frequently. Most of the time I don’t procrastinate….unless it’s something I don’t want to be doing in the first place. Do you find that to be the case with you?
Pain isn’t just physical, mental “pain” that is caused by a million different problems is just as debilitating to our lives as physical pain is to our moving our body through life easily. Here in this blog I’ll be occasionally be sharing topics that I’ve found that will help us in so many ways to live a happier life.
I’ve been working to create new habits in my life, habits that will keep me on track both personally and professionally, so I’ll be heading toward the things I want and not focusing on the things I DON’T want. How many times do we say “I sure don’t want (fill in the blank) to happen!” without knowing that the more we look at the unwanted topic, the more likely it is that it will occur.
So, knowing that I’m working at developing new beneficial habits into my life, I was pleased when I received a wonderful article from a self-growth site that sends articles to my email. I’m going to share the shortened version of it here with you, and the full version will be going onto my eNewsletter.
“Habits often have a bad reputation…but some habits can be helpful and healthy. Stop and think about your talents for a moment. What are you not doing that would help you enjoy your talents more, get more done or be more effective? It might be a practice that worked well for you in the past but that you stopped doing for some reason…or it could be a new activity that you’d like to try. It’s possible to turn helpful or healthy practices into new habits. Here’s a step by step guide:
1. Identify a practice that you’d like to become an automatic part of your life.
2. Be specific and concrete.
3. Ask yourself: why?
4. Whittle your intended habit into reasonable, doable baby steps.
5. Start small.
6. Set yourself up for success.
7. Monitor your progress.
8. Remind yourself why you’re doing this.
9. Praise yourself.
10. Be kind and gentle with yourself.
11. If you find yourself consistently missing your intentions, then it’s time to dig deeper.
12. When you find yourself meeting your initial baby step practices regularly and consistently, up the ante a bit.
13. Be patient.
14. When you’ve successfully established your new habit, be sure to reward yourself for that milestone.
As the author, Liisa Kyle, says at the end of her article, “After your first target habit is well established and ingrained, you can return to your list of habits from step #1, select a new habit and go through the process again. You’ll find that each time you go through the process, you’ll get faster and faster at establishing your new target habits.
Activity: Select a healthy, helpful habit you’d like to start. Follow steps 1 -14.”
I know that creating new habits, eliminating procrastination, and simply saying “no” to the things I don’t want to do anyway, will certainly make my life a whole lot better.
Wishing you well,
Julie