Harnessing on Our Habits for a Successful Life

O’Brien just had a very productive day as he managed to seal a deal worth millions of dollars. In a jovial mode, he calls all his friends for a whisky drink; just as he seems to do every time he sealed a lucrative deal.

Sasha has a very busy and stressing working day. Tired and frustrated, as soon as she arrives home, she puts on the exercise gear and goes for a brief jog just as she seems to do every time she is exhausted.

What do O’Brien and Sasha have in common? Whether they realise it or not, both have been affected by a powerful force-the force of habit. What about you? Are there good habits that you would like to build in your life? Perhaps your goal is to be the richest person in the world, to be a renowned human rights activist, or to be a peace advocate.

On the other hand, maybe you would like to break a bad habit that is crippling your success in life. Admittedly, it can be difficult to overcome a bad habit. Analogically, a bad habit is like a warm bed on a cold day: it is easy to get into and hard hard to get out of! So how can you harness your habits and make the best out of them? Consider the following suggestions bases on real life experience.

1.Be Realistic
It can be tempting to try to change every bad habit crippling your success in life. You tell yourself that this week I want to do away with A,B,C and want to achieve D,E,F. But trying to reach all your goals at the same time is a sure way to reach none of them! The rule of the thump is: “Wisdom is with the modest ones”.

Research has shown that very successful people are modest and thus they are realistic. A modest person recognises that there are limits to his time, energy and resources. So rather than trying to change everything at once, s/he makes improvements gradually.

2.Manage your Environment
You want to be the richest person in the world, but you sleep for more than 23 hours and you associate yourself with pessimistic people. You aspire to be a renowned human rights activist but you dine with the world’s greatest dictators. You want to be a peace ambassador but your speeches are always full of hate message.

Did you notice a common thread in those scenarios? Time and again, experience has shown that our environment-the situation we put ourselves in, the people we spend time with, the way we calculate our decisions-influence our success to a greater extent. We should therefore be very calculative and cautious and avoid situations that can undermine our goals, that is, managing our environment.

3.Take a Long-range View
In our pursuant to success in life, we are bound to face many challenges along the way. Sometimes it might be quick for us to adopt good habits and forgo bad habits. Sometimes it takes a lot of time. Having a long-range view will therefore be of paramount importance; as what counts in the end is not how many times we fall along the way, but how many times we get up to reach our desired goal.