The Only 4 Good Habits You Need to Master Life!
Have Fewer Regrets
There are 4 good habits I recommend for anyone who wants to master life. Life is the most amazing thing really! But if you want to enjoy your life more and have fewer regrets there are habits to master.
I used to read about self-development and couldn’t believe I was capable of that kind of change. It seemed so difficult and I believed I was not an achiever like those experts. However, I couldn’t have been further from the truth.
I believe the mind is flexible, nothing is ever set in stone. In fact, science has declared our brain is neuroplastic, capable of any kind of change. If there is anything you dislike about yourself, you can change it.
So with that, these are habits that I recommend people practice to improve their lives right now; learn to quiet the mind, take care of yourself, you repeat your actions for habits to form, and hack your motivation. That’s it, just four habits. The reason I am not adding any of the usual high achiever’s habits everyone likes to write about is that you can achieve anything with these four habits.
Quiet the Mind
One, learn to quiet your brain. You can learn how to think less of the useless brain chatter we all tend to do. Practice pushing nagging thoughts out of your brain. Most of our thinking is not helpful thinking, most are anxiety-inducing.
Another way to quiet the mind is by sitting quietly early in the morning for 5 minutes (I suggest starting with 5). During this time I want you to gently let go of any thought that pops into your mind, don’t over think it, just let go of any thought. If you practice that every morning or any time you have a few minutes you will get rid of anxiety that often leads to bad mental health.
Places you can practice this:
- In the morning after waking up
- In your car right before work
- At lunch before taking your first bite of food
- In the shower (practice the quieting the mind bit, not the sitting)
- while folding laundry (same as above)
I want you to make this as easy as possible, do it often and you will see a big difference in your happiness (when we live in anxiety, you create unhappiness).
Take Care of Yourself
Two, go to bed early, eat a few more fruits/ vegetables per day, and walk more. Taking care of you is not about your nails or your “time alone”. Self-care is simple but often we abuse our bodies by watching tv instead of sleeping or forgetting to eat well, and not exercising enough.
I did not give you a huge list of self-care items for a reason, I want you to succeed. Go to bed early, it’s hard but our bodies begin to short change our minds if you mess with it. You start to get more anxious, you crave more sweets, you show more anger, you avoid activities and all that because you missed your sleep.
Now, on to eating more fruits and vegetable parts. I don’t suggest you take anything away yet, instead focus on adding more. Add a bowl of fruit to breakfast, a side salad to dinner. Make it simple and you are more likely to begin the change.
Last, get up and do more activity. Go on a short walk, or just run around with your kids or dog. By making yourself more a little more each day you improve circulation and thus oxygen to your brain and cells. The self-care ideas above are simple but you will notice differences if you apply them.
Repeat the Activity
Three, learn the genius of repetition. Learning that habits are nothing more than a repeated activity that becomes second nature, was the best thing I have ever learned. You will not see a change in anything you do if you don’t repeat your pattern or activity. Make this your mantra “Repetition is the mother of change, I repeat, I will change”. No expert, no high achiever has ever been successful by doing anything once. REPEAT everything you want to stick every day.
I remember the day I learned the value of repetition, I learned a move I was trying to master in dancing. Boy, I must have practiced that move 50 times, but my body finally got it and it was the best feeling ever. Then I moved on to the next move and the same thing happened. Later on, I remember thinking, what if I could have applied that kind of commitment to everything in my life I thought I was bad at? Oh, the person I could have become, that’s when I decided to stop wasting my life.
Hack Your Motivation
Fourth, hack your motivation. When I say hacking, I mean just get up and move. Don’t think, don’t give it emotion, just get up and get going. One of the hardest things about getting things done is the feeling of angst that we apply to it, if you take away that feeling you disarm it.
Read my Five Proven Tricks to How to Hack Motivation post here.
Learning to self-motivate was by far the hardest for me. I had piles of things that I needed to get done and I would normally leave them till they become “urgent” matters. Don’t abuse yourself by leaving things to the last minute, instead recognize that motivation has a weight, remove the weight and see how easy it is to move.
Conclusion
I only gave you four things, four things that if practiced every day can make the biggest impact on your life. Begin those habits if you want to see real change.
Do this by;
- Quieting your mind first.
- Take care of your body.
- Learn the beauty of repetition.
- Hack your motivation.
When you do those four simple habit changes you change the root causes of the everyday issues. Change those things and you change your life.
Your Turn:
What are the things you admire in others?
What habit do you wish you could hack?
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