Good Habits ... Essential For Personal & Professional Success

In today’s busy world, more so than ever, habits are key for personal and professional success. Habits are essential because they allow us to do things without thinking about it. What would your life be like if you had to think through everything you did through every moment of every day? Just imagine actually having to think through all the decisions you made about driving to work...inserting the key into the ignition, turning the key, releasing the brake, checking your rear view mirror, checking your side mirrors, backing out of the garage. Our minds would be overwhelmed with regular everyday activities if we had to make moment-to-moment decisions about everything.

Webster’s dictionary defines a habit as an acquired mode of behavior that as become nearly or completely involuntary. Notice it does not indicate whether it is good or bad. That is determined by the habit itself. If the habits are good they are short-cuts to automatic decision-making, allowing us to move more quickly through life, accomplishing more leading to our success. However, if bad, they are short-cuts to automatic decision-making that can result in us accomplishing less and being unsuccessful. Let us look at three habits have can easily determine our success in life or lack there of: self talk, personal associations, food choices.

Self talk is the inner conversation we have with ourselves at every moment of everyday. This conversation helps to determine our attitude and as the famous saying indicates “Our attitude determines our altitude.” What are your inner conversations like? Are they filled with lots of negative thoughts about things you feel you cannot do because of the lack of education, money, time or knowing the right people? Negative self-talk can become a habit, a way of thinking that is automatic and prevents us from doing the things we can do to achieve our goals and dreams. How can we stop that from happening?

In the One Minute Millionaire, Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen, write about a rubber band exercise that I believe can help us in that area. They recommend you wear a rubber band around your wrist for 21 days. Every time you find yourself thinking or saying something negative you slightly pull on the rubber band so that it pops against your skin. You do not pull on it hard causing a bruise or damage to your wrist. But rather just enough so you realize you are thinking negative. At that point you are to replace the negative thought with something more positive and affirming; a thought which can move you forward instead of holding you back. They indicate you should do the rubber band exercise for at least 21 days because it takes that amount of time to start to change the negative thought pattern.

Personal associations are the people we choose to interact with on a regular basis. The question is are they positive or negative. If they are negative, their limited way of thinking can rub off on us and then we end up thinking negatively. Like self-talk the type of people we choose to associate with can become a habit. So you should determine what your pattern is. Do you find yourself with friends who are pursuing ambitious and worthwhile goals and dreams? Or are your friends stuck in a rut of mediocrity. Be honest with yourself as you think about them. If you find they are more of the latter than the former, you will want to make some changes. Begin by broadening the people you spend time with. Join organizations of individuals of people are doing more with their lives, like an Optimists Club or Toastmasters Club. Start spending less and less time with those who are negative so you can create more time for those who are positive and moving forward.

Like self-talk and personal associations, food choices can become a habit. Those habits can lead to a life-time of good health or bad health. With the alarming increase in diabetes and other food-related diseases, we cannot afford for bad food choices to become a habit. What do you find yourself eating everyday? Are fast-food restaurants where you usually go for lunch or dinner? Are you eating the recommended number of fruits and vegetables daily? Are you drinking the recommended 8 glasses of water a day? Consciously monitor your unconscious food choices by keeping a daily diary of what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. After a week, check the listing, if you find your choices are less than you desire, start making better decisions your routine as opposed to the exception.

Changing our habits regarding our self-talk, personal associations and food choices can help lead to having more successful lives.

Donna Satchell, President of STARR Consulting & Training is a speaker, trainer and author. She provides programs in customer service, team-building, time management, public speaking as well as motivational speeches which inspire individuals to live more successful lives. Please visit www.JustGetSerious.com for information about products and services as well as to view videos of Donna’s speeches. Contact her at 770-498-0400 or Donna@JustGetSerious.com.

Permission is granted to reprint this article provided this bio and contact information are included in the publication. Permission is also granted for reasonable editing, including article title change.