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Breaking Habits - Making Positive Changes in Your Routine

Guest post by: Jerel Benjamin

Article Overview: Only forceful positive actions will make for permanent change in your professional and personal life. This article provides practical steps to turn those intentions into reality

Breaking Habits - Making Positive Changes in Your Routine

We hear a lot about breaking bad habits and addictions. What about the habits that we don't even notice are there? Many things we do each day are a pattern of habitual behavior. This enables us to multi-task without having to put much effort into the process. For example, we can easily get ready for our day without a thought while listening to the morning news or our favorite morning program. Some of the things we do without thinking may not be good for us though, i.e. an old thought pattern that keeps us doing the same thing. While our routines and habits may be a form of comfort for us, doing what we have already done will only lead us to the same destination we have reached. Which leads to the question, are you satisfied with that destination? To enact permanent change, you will have to enact a new routine as well.

Follow this process to create new behaviors while releasing ourselves from habitual patterns of thought.

Step 1: Observe Your Current Patterns and Routines

What do you repeatedly do each day without thinking? Odds are, each day you wake up and get ready for the day without putting much thought into what you must do. You shower, eat, and get dressed in the same order. You may have the same breakfast, watch the same television program and then drive the same way to work. What would happen if you were to do these same things in a different way?

Recently, I found myself in a similar situation. Each morning I would rush into the office to finish a project. But, when I found myself too sick to make it in one morning, I was forced to think why I was rushing to meet this daily deadline and not finishing the project the day before. I had convinced myself my afternoons were too busy, not remembering that I had restructured my days for time in the afternoons for projects. The idea that I was "too busy" to do it the day before was an old, outdated thought that was no longer relevant.

Where in your daily routine can you find room for improvement? Where do you find yourself rushed, frazzled or falling behind? These are all areas that once you have observed their occurrence you can begin to change with tomorrows step.

Step 2: Brainstorm Ideas On How To Do Things Differently

Once you have taken a look and noticed your habitual patterns of behavior no longer working for you, you must sit down and come up with ideas to change the process. What techniques might you use instead that might spark a new result?

At first the process of brainstorming may not be easy. If coming up with new ideas were that simple, you may have changed your behavior long ago. Here are a few simple things you can do to get your mind to allow a new flow of ideas:

• Find a place to relax. When you are in a relaxed, comfortable state, your mind will allow itself to flow to new possibilities
• Allow yourself to challenge your limiting beliefs. Think about "what if". How do you envision the life you want to live?
• Studies clearly show that children at play are constantly coming up with new solutions to the challenges they see. Allow yourself time for recreation. This will spark the creative part of your brain and you will see and solve things differently.

Step 3: Allow For Insight

This week you have observed where your behavior may have been stuck and you've brainstormed new ideas to change this behavior. Now you must commit to making the change. When you have committed to the idea of breaking your habits and trying something new, you will receive further insight into the solutions for your challenges. Some of the ideas you've brainstormed may sound better than the others. Review them intensely. Does one stand out to you? This is the idea you should commit to and pursue it relentlessly to make a change for the better.

You may notice that you initially come up with a list of reasons why releasing your limiting beliefs won't work. This is the time to remind yourself, if you continue to do what you've done in the past you will only get where you have been. Step out of your own way and refuse this temptation. If you find this difficult, consult with your accountability partner or coach. Weigh in on their feedback on your brainstorm ideas and allow them to help you bring yourself back into focus.

Remember, whichever change you decide to make is not as important as not allowing yourself to get stuck weighing all your option. Choose one from your list and move forward.

STEP 4: Take Action!

Taking action is the most important stage in the process of creating sustainable leadership. This is the part where you put in the hard work required to make a change to your routine. Without taking an action, the end products we wish to create remain in the realm of being ideas.

Often times, we allow ourselves to stay at the beginning of the process. We either continue to observe our behavior, seeking more answers from the past, or we endlessly brainstorm in hopes of creating a "smoking gun" path to victory. Be aware that these are tactics we may use for fear of moving forward and making a change in behavior. Engaging in this type of thinking doing exactly what you have been doing in the past. Take thoughts such as I'm too old, circumstances aren't favorable, or I'm unqualified out of your mind. Instead, remember this fact:

Studies have constantly shown that it is much easier to adopt a brand new habit than it is to simply STOP doing something else. Allow your new actions to replace any old behaviors that have hindered your success.

STEP 5: Continually Inspect Your Decision

Now that you've decided what you would like to change, how you want to go about making the change, and begun implementing the action required, it's time to think about how to make this sustainable. New habits take time. It takes repeated effort for 21-30 days to institute a new habit into your lifestyle. How will you make sure that you follow the new pattern?

Find creative ways to remind yourself of the benefits that will come from making this change and of the outcome, and why you are seeking it. Set-up regular check-points along the way and reward

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Article Tags: jerel benjamin, permanent change, personal life, positive changes
Referred by: http://www.drjohnoda.com



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