A habit is a practice or a routine that becomes something you don’t want to give up. If you study the most successful people, you will find that the great majority of them have a well-established list of habits that keep them on track and focused. We all have habits, good and bad, that we follow. While it’s easy to recognize the good habits such as brushing our teeth before bed every night or taking our vitamins, it’s often the bad habits like reading emails as soon as you grab your phone in the morning that we overlook. So this week I challenge you to take a look at the habits you have established in your life and let’s set some goals to create new ones or eliminate some of those that might be holding you back.
Research shows that it takes at least 21 days to break a habit and around 66 days to create a new one. So this is going to require a bit of commitment from you when you are ready to change. During the quarantine, I decided to finally commit to the 5am challenge for at least 66 days. It’s based on the book The 5am Club, by best-selling author Robin Sharma. He claims that the billionaires and most successful people in the world all share a similar habit of waking up early, exercising, meditating or praying, and reading or learning every day. He is also very adamant that it should be done at 5am every day and each of the actions should last around 20 minutes. So you get up, get out of bed and start with 20 min of exercise, then 20 minutes of prayer or meditation, and finally 20 minutes of reading or learning something. Generally, the first reaction from people when they hear this is- “5am? Why does it have to be sooo early?” He says 5am is the magic time because it’s before most people wake up so the world around you is quiet and because it requires you to learn some discipline in doing something that might be a bit uncomfortable but you commit to it in order to better yourself.
I’m a morning person, so shifting from my usual 6am wake up to 5am wasn’t a big stretch for me, but it is a bit harder on the weekends when I am tempted to stay up a bit later the night before. I didn’t set an alarm clock to wake up right at 5am, but I adjusted my bedtime to slightly earlier, another important step noted by Mr. Sharma in the book. The key isn’t to get less sleep, but to adjust your routine to allow for that extra hour in the morning. I now naturally wake up within 15min of 5am every day. Today is day 30 for me. I usually throw on my headphones and dance for 20 mins. It’s not always the easiest to get moving right after you wake up, but having some music you love makes it a lot easier. I’ve tried a lot of different meditations over the last month to see which one kind of feels the most effective, and I haven’t settled on one that works that best. The final 20 mins I have been using to watch classes on http://www.creativelive.com where I bought an annual pass while it was recently discounted. I find that starting my day with learning instead of emails or social media or television causes me to want to keep learning or read more later in the day as well. I think it may have been the best addition to my morning routine. While the 5am challenge might be a bit too extreme for you right now, keep it in mind and you never know when the time will be right to add it to your routine.
Whatever habit you are trying to build or break, I would suggest you find a way to track your progress and hold yourself accountable. For me, it’s printing out a calendar that I can check off the days or setting a reminder on my phone. You might choose to have an accountability partner that checks in on you daily or weekly. The key is going to be consistency. It’s so easy to fall off the wagon after just a day or two of skipping the new routine. I’m sure everyone knows someone or will admit themselves to giving up on a new diet plan after a cheat day, or maybe you skip working out during a vacation and then just never go back to it. There are always going to be excuses as to why you can’t or won’t do something but building new habits or breaking the old ones are going to require that you overcome those. If you forget to set out your workout clothes the night before, tough cookies, you are gonna dig through those drawers in the dark to pull out those socks and t-shirt. Oh, you are exhausted from traveling and having a big meal with coworkers, that’s too bad, you can still run in place in your hotel room before you go to bed to close those Apple watch rings. As you can see, I might have a few examples from my own life to share.
When you make a commitment to yourself, it’s so important to keep it. This is going to build confidence, build new habits, and set you up for success. These are the things that set apart the great achievers from those who settle for just ok. Are you ready to take your life to the next level? Are you ready for real change in your life? Can you make a commitment to yourself to improve? If you are ready, let me know. I’d love to guide you through creating a plan to bring real change to your life! Change is a challenge in the beginning, but if you can establish that consistency, then you are going to have success in creating a new habit.
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