How Your Habits Will Determine Your Success

Humans are born with the ability to self diagnose. The earliest forms of this become evident in our conscience. What is right from wrong. Things our parents began to tell us at an early age get molded into our fiber. But at some point as we grow older we are tested as views from a world outside our home start to creep into our lives. So what does all this have to do with habits and self diagnosis you ask. Without the proper direction from our parents it becomes very easy to become conditioned to take the path of least resistance. A constant amount of don't touch. Don't say that. Stay away from there, sets our conditions that later create habits we wish we could change.

Changing habits creates fear in the unknown. Change is usually not immediate and can take some time. What impact will change have on my relationship with my spouse. Change is hard work. We also know that hard work is usually rewarding. So why do we continue to slide along the same old way and not make those changes to our habits we know are holding us back. Good habits will lead you to success in your personal life as well in your working life. But it's so hard to do. How many of your New Years resolutions have gone by the way side?

So how do we go about insuring we make changes to our day to day habits? We know if we make the changes they will bring success into our lives. The most common habits we think about changing are to quit smoking, to eat less,spend less money and exercise more. The fast recipe are the following. Step One, My suggestion to you is write down why you want to make the change and how you will feel after having made the change. Step two is to write down what you will do day by day to effect the change. Step Three is to have a date that the new habit will have taken full root and you no longer have to think about your new habit as it is now part of your every day life. Step Four is to share your goal for your habit change with someone who will help you keep on track. Stand fast to these steps and you will be on the road to success.

For those of you driven to really make a big change there is a book by Stephen R Covey called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. 15 million copies in print will convince you that there are millions of people out there who want to effect change in their lives. I must tell you in my opinion this book can be as dry as cotton batten. I tried numerous times to push through it and had to put it down. What I did not realize back then is that I was pushing back change.

Covey's Seven Habits are as follows:

1. Be Proactive Move from dependence to independence.
2. Begin with the End in Mind Self discover your character values and life goals
3. Put First Things First (I personally like this one. You can't build a house without a set of plans.)
4. Think Win Win If all sides of an arrangement are mutually beneficial every one wins
5. Seek First to Understand, Then be understood
6. Synergize Creativity comes from cooperation
7. Sharpen the Saw Covey Calls this, Principals of Balanced Self-Renewal

Very Powerful Habits. Very Powerful Personal Intentions. Intentions that change the whole way we think and approach everything we do. Follow these 7 fundamental character changing habits and success will surely be in your grasp.

I can share with you that when you are committed to such changes your mind becomes all consumed and for a period of time will effect your sleep. This is natural and as uncomfortable as it sounds is a good sign that you are pushing through the old habits. Your embracing change and acceptance to be a best the best you can be will be worth a few nights of restless sleep. Like your old habits those sleepless nights will soon forgotten.