Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

You don’t need to have 100 good habits to make your life better. Just 12 habits are plenty to completely turn your life around.

Of course, it’s important to choose effective habits. The right habits put your success on autopilot. If you’re doing the right things each day, good things happen. It’s as certain as gravity. Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

Use this process to enhance your life one habit at a time:

1. Know your goals. You can’t choose the best habits to add to your life without knowing your goals. The best habits support your goals and make them much more likely to come to fruition. Make a list of your goals and prioritize them.

2. Make a list of all the habits that would aid in reaching those goals. Take a look at your most important goals and consider all of the habits that would help you to reach those goals. List every possible habit you can think of no matter how small it might be. We’re not judging them yet, so list them all. Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

3. Prioritize those habits. Some habits are far more effective than others. Take your list of habits and put them in order from most effective to least. Take as much time to do this as you need. Be honest with yourself. The most effective actions are often the least enjoyable.

> Choose the 12 habits that will make the biggest impact in your life over the next year. Make sure that you have these 12 habits in a logical order that makes sense for you.

4. Make a plan. Start with the first habit and develop a plan for how you can implement it in 30 days. Let’s suppose that your first goal is to go to the gym each day for 45 minutes and alternate days between cardio and lifting weights. You might decide to proceed this way: Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

> Day 1. Find a gym close to the house that is convenient for me and affordable.

> Days 2-7. Go to the gym for at least 15 minutes. I’ll let myself do whatever I want when I get there.

> Days 8-14. Go to the gym for at least 25 mins. At least half of that time must be spent on cardio.

> And so on. Just be sure to be at full speed by day 30.

5. Start with only one goal. Keep it to one goal. It might seem more effective and much faster to put all the habits into action at once, but it works better, and the results are more long-lasting to do it one at a time. Twelve good habits over a year are life changing.

6. Put all of your energy and focus on that one goal. That one goal has to be a huge priority. This is your life you’re talking about. Be 100% determined to be successful this time. Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

7. Do it daily. Daily actions are easier to turn into habits that things you only do a few times a week.

8. Plan your energy. People often plan their time without considering their energy levels. For example, going to the gym in the morning is either much better or worse than going to the gym in the evening for you. Everyone is different. Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

> Plan your time, but plan around your energy.

9. Keep your eye on the big picture. These habits might not be enjoyable in the short term. However, if you keep your attention on the benefits you’ll gain, it will make things easier.

10. Track your results. Track your results. You might be tracking pounds of body weight, dollars, pushups, or hours of piano practice. Tracking your results is motivating. Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

After 30 days, add another habit. Keep going until you’ve added all 12. Just 12 habits will make a huge difference. Instead of trying to change everything about your life at once, try tackling life one habit at a time. Which habit will you choose? Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

Do Your Goals Support Your Values?

If you’re struggling to be as successful as you’d like to be, there’s a great chance that a discrepancy exists between your goals and your values. If our goals are antithetical to our values, success is all but impossible. We don’t like to behave in ways that are counter to our values. If a mismatch exists, something has to give. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

If you’re forever coming up short when it comes to achieving your dreams, your values might be at odds with your goals.

Use these techniques to set goals that support your values:

1. List your current values. Have you ever taken the time to examine your values? Most people have never given their values a second thought. This is a shame, because a person’s values guide their thinking, decisions, and actions. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

> Take 30 minutes and list your values. Put them in order of their priority to you.

> Ask yourself if your behavior is aligned with your values. If there’s a mismatch, what set of values would actually represent your behavior?

> Most of us have an idealized impression of our intentions, values, and qualities.

2. What are you trying to accomplish? What are your goals in life? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to be wealthy? Get a six-pack? Write a screenplay? Save the whales? Build a real estate empire? The first step to any great success is to identify your objectives. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

3. How do your current values impact your goals? If your values and goals don’t match, the odds of success are dismal without something changing.

> For example, if you believe that wealthy people are fundamentally bad, you’ll never accumulate a significant amount of wealth.

> If comfort is a high priority for you, that six-pack will never materialize.

> Do you value having a lot of leisure time? A goal that requires a lot of work isn’t going to happen. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

> Look at your goals and look at your values. Do your goals support those values? Do your values support your goals?

4. What would be the perfect set of values to support your goals? Imagine you could build a person from scratch that would be perfect for accomplishing your goals. What values and qualities would they possess? How would you be different if you had these values?

> Think about the people you know that have accomplished what you want to accomplish. How would you describe them?

5. How close can you come to matching those values? How well can you rearrange your values to match that ideal set of values? The closer you’re able to come, the greater the odds of your success. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

6. Reinforce the values that matter. Imagine that your goal is to save $20,000 for a down payment on a home. Let’s suppose that you’ve determined that you need to be someone that values saving money over spending. How can you build this value in yourself and make it a part of you?

> Prove to yourself that you’re that type of person: For example, pick up pennies you find on the ground and save them. Cut coupons. Find new ways of dealing with stress other than shopping. Save part of your income as soon as your paycheck hits your bank account.

> When you keep proving to yourself over and over again that you possess a value, those actions will build and reinforce that value. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

Are your goals and values a good match? It’s important that they are. When a mismatch exists, it’s important to either alter your values or your goals. There’s only so much resistance a person can overcome. Success is much easier when your values and your intentions are highly compatible. Do Your Goals Support Your Values

Courage – What’s In It For You?

Courage is a curious thing. Those who have it need not have it explained. Those who do not have it don’t understand it at all. Courage is not the absence of fear. Nor is it fearlessness. Nor is it bravery. Courage – What’s In It For You

People with courage have just as much fear as the next person.

Osho explains it like this: “In the beginning there is not much difference between the coward and the courageous person. The only difference is, the coward listens to his fears and follows them, and the courageous person puts them aside and goes ahead. The courageous person goes into the unknown in spite of all his fears.”

When you have courage, going into unknown, uncharted territory is an adventure. There is a thrill to it. Every fiber in your body begins to bristle. You feel so very much alive. Courage – What’s In It For You

To accept the challenge of the unknown in spite of all your fears is courage.

You feel strong, you feel a sense of integrity, and you feel very, very sharp. Exchanging the familiar for the unfamiliar is an adrenaline rush on all levels.

Courageous people are always seeking adventure in all that they do. But it isn’t just something you do – it’s a way of being.

Isn’t Life One Big Adventure? Courage – What’s In It For You

Life is totally unpredictable isn’t it? We have no idea what will happen from one minute to the next. Despite our best efforts to plan, schedule, and organize, life is totally random on all levels.

Yet, we’re taught to seek security and stability in order to feel safe and protected.

Helen Keller wrote: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger in the long run is no safer than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”Helen Keller wrote: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger in the long run is no safer than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Courage – What’s In It For You

It’s interesting that we’re taught to seek out something that doesn’t exist. How can we ever find something that isn’t even there?

Courage: Living From the Heart

The word “courage” is also interesting. It comes from the Latin “cor” which means “of the heart.” To be courageous means to live from the heart.

To live with courage means to embrace the known insecurity of life and live in it, with love and trust. Those who live with their head full of the known and seek safety and security cannot live life to the full. They can never be fully alive.

The way forward for humanity is in listening to the heart consciously, alertly, and attentively, and to follow where it leads you. Courage – What’s In It For You

Will you make mistakes? Yes. Will you make errors of judgement? Yes. Will you have to start over from time to time? Of course.

And in all that you do, you will learn, you will grow, your confidence and competence will rise, and you will become infinitely wiser because of it.

Courage: Being Decisive

Making mistakes is inevitable. It’s how we learn and develop experience. We just need to avoid making the same mistakes twice. That shows that we learned from the first time.

Instead, head into the unknown. Be decisive and take action. If something doesn’t work, learn from that, make a new decision, and take a different action. The faster you go, the quicker you learn what’s right and what’s not. Courage – What’s In It For You

Courage thrives in a fast moving, decisive environment.

Life itself thrives in a fast moving, decisive environment. If you want to live a memorable and exciting life, keep moving.

Courage Helps You Avoid Anxiety

You only need to ponder a problem long enough to understand it. Once you understand it, decide on a course of action and implement it without delay.

Too many people spend too much time with worry. What is worry other than a form of anxiety about a problem that grows exponentially in proportion to the number of times you think about it? Even knowing that, most people suffer immeasurable anxiety on a daily basis. Courage – What’s In It For You

If you develop courage – courage to face a challenge, make a decision, take action, and resolve it – everything changes.

You only need to think about a challenge long enough to understand it. Then make a decision about it and immediately take action on that decision. Any anxiety you may be suffering about your challenge evaporates in that moment.

Live the Adventure

Both in life and in business, fortune favors the courageous. Courage encourages us to live in the moment, to be alive. Not to dwell on the past or to waste time worrying about the future.

Those who make a conscious effort to develop their courage will always live a vibrant, exciting, life. Courage – What’s In It For You

Life is nothing more than a collection of experiences. You have the choice of making them exciting, vibrant, memorable experiences or not.

You have the choice of making a handful of experiences or countless thousands of experiences.

Listen to your heart. What does your heart choose?

Courage will ensure that you will live a most fulfilling life. You won’t get everything right. You’ll stumble and fall, but you won’t care about that because you will always rise, and your life will become a daring adventure – an exciting, vibrant, memorable adventure. Courage – What’s In It For You