by Thomas O’Duffy
If you’ve got the guts, you can really change your entire life, starting today. Here is what you need to know:
We humans are creatures of habit. Habits are automatic behaviours that we do without thinking, and you’ll keep living the results of your habits, good and bad, until you change them.
Your habits are your destiny.
Think about your personal success like a game of snakes and ladders.
Your good habits (those ways of thinking and behaving that propel you forwards and increase your well being) are the ladders. The more good habits you have, the more successful you’ll be!
Your bad habits (those ways of thinking and acting that rob you of vitality and enthusiasm and interrupt your progress) are the snakes. Your bad habits are liabilities that will keep costing you and holding you back until you get rid of them.
Familiarity Gravity
Most people are about as successful in getting rid of their bad habits as they are in sticking to their new year’s resolutions. This is because humans gravitate towards the familiar.
Doing something new and different pushes us out of our comfort zones and creates healthy stress that we can grow from. Most people, unfortunately, have a habit of retreating to what is familiar when they encounter stress, even if what is familiar isn’t good for them.
The Silent Invisible Epidemic
Familiarity Gravity is reinforced in our modern society where our senses are constantly bombarded with text messages, advertisements, phone calls, instant messages, emails and a vast amount of information and choices. This continuous sensory barrage leads to our feeling overwhelmed and at the same time, distracts most people too much from dealing with that overwhelment and resulting stress.
Life Changing Secrets
When you take care of the important things, the other things tend to solve themselves. Here are seven practices you can use often (until they become good habits) to totally transform your life:
1. Eliminate distractions & disruptions
Figure out which personal and professional activities will create the most value for you, and then switch off your cell phone, email software, web browser and screen out any other potential distractions for a few hours each day to totally focus, undistracted, on what’s most important for you. You’ll get more done and feel less overwhelmed.
2. Prioritize your rest & renewal
To perform at your highest level; you need to get the best kind of rest. Make sure you get enough sleep and include in each day some activities that help you process stress and increase your well-being. Life goes in the right direction when there are more sources of well-being than stress.
3. Eat for energy (not for entertainment)
When you are choosing what to eat or what food to buy, ask yourself “Am I choosing to eat this for entertainment (the taste) or for energy (the way the food leaves your body feeling)?” When you chose to eat for energy, you’ll get more joy and entertainment from your whole life.
4. Make the most of your morning.
What you do for the first hour after you wake up determines how well you feel for the whole day. Dedicate the first hour of your day totally to your own well being by doing some light exercise, stretching, listening to inspiring music and eat the healthiest breakfast you can.
5. Improve gradually and continuously.
Each day, focus on doing something slightly better than the day before and enjoy the process. If you can improve your life by 3% each day for a month, your life will be twice as good.
6. Hang out with positive successful people
Their attitudes and wisdom will rub off on you and they’ll hold you to higher standards for your own good.
7. Invest in life changing experiences
Do whatever you need to so you get rid of your bad habits and build better ones. For example, take a course, read a book, find a friend who can be your success partner, or if you need to, research the right Therapist, Hypnotist, NLP Practitioner or Coach to help you change what you can’t change by yourself. You’ll be glad you did.
With the above, you can do a Saint Patrick on your life and get rid of all the snakes and create a life you love living. To your success!
Thomas O’Duffy is a Life Coach & Advanced Master Practitioner of NLP.
He offers personal sessions in Dublin. You can reach him on +353 85 110 1111 or visit his website www.lifechanging.ie for a free video based life coaching course.
