Achieving Your Goals
- Edited by Rhonda Lamoureux
- Dec 30, 2017
- 3 min read
These principles are nothing new [ancient wisdom often isn’t]
1. Think of life as a circle instead of a straight line: If you have to imagine your life’s path, think of it as a circle. Circles, the shape of sun, moon and rings. They simply radiate calmness. On the other hand, lines can go into the unknown. With uncertainty, lines can stay hidden from view, if such were our visual view of the world. Imagine that your life, habits, too, travel on a circle which you can see end from any angle and can promptly bring you back to another beginning.
2. Practice firmness and kindness with yourself: There is a sweet combination that is the key to sustaining good habits, but it takes self-awareness to develop. It is important to never lose kindness to yourself; I have many times lost that and always have regret in hindsight. Habits can be difficult to form for some of us; practice firmness and self-discipline when on target or ahead of your goals and practice kindness when you fall behind. This is really helpful for thriving habits beyond 30 days.
3. Let complimentary habits build upon each other: Just like people give each other energy, habits can encourage one another to thrive as well. A good example of this is eating a healthy breakfast and taking a hike. By letting one strong health-enhancing habit feed another, you can turn days into years. Don't wonder how on earth you will make time for new habits, think instead of how much easier it is to master habits than one great one. Find the relevance and power in your habits.
4. Reject the falsehood of being too old or too weak or too incapable to change: My 94 year old Grandmother still drives and takes walks. She knows not to allow age set an artificial boundaries. Be just like that. Change takes guts so take a giant leap of faith into it. Act as a stubborn child who refuses to believe such outrageous claims. Think outside any box and in fact, crush the box. Create your own perfect box for life and decide between yourself, your body and your mind, that you are beautiful and powerful beyond your own imagination and it would be a shame not to find out just how much.
5. Accept starting over – even countless times – as progress: Starting over is not easy for me, even though I have experienced it several times. I used to declare defeat and move on to the next habit. My mental state of seeking perfection could not accept that I had failed and so I would move on to pursue a new thing. Sometimes this turns out for the better. Sometimes, in fact, the habit may not be suitable to your lifestyle, your personality or your long-term goals. Listen to yourself. Allow yourself to fail and start over. It IS the best form of progress.
6. Know the difference between support and competition: Competition with others or with yourself will not go as far in forming your habits as will a supportive community of like-minded people. Competition can work in building habits but I find it to be far less effective. When we are surrounded with a supportive community, we build together lifelong habits to tip the scale of success.
7. Understand life itself sometimes throws off habits: There are times when it really (really) is not your fault. There are days when life throws you a curve ball and you have to step back to take care of life immediately. Naturally, self-improvement habits step back in the presence of emergencies. Accept it. Remember only one thing: You can start over when the dust settles and you may just find renewed sense of purpose and motivation to continue on with your habits.
8. Repeat your fixed-day challenge more than once: Some researchers believe that it actually takes 66 days on average to form a habit. Other people report the same for 21 days, the magic number which locks the habit into our body and mind for good. Both ideas may have a dosage of truth – the determining factor is YOU. How long it takes you who is so individual and unique. If you belong in the first category, your best outcome is to do two back-to-back monthly challenges and re-build seeds of habitude more slowly but with deeper roots and stronger foundation.
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