One thing I found in common among successful people is that they are the people with habits. They have a system of how they operate. Just like a successful business operates with a proven system, successful people act with a proven habit. I am fully convinced that anyone can change their lives with positive habits.
What makes a habit? How to create a positive habit? I read somewhere that more than 60% of our daily lives are based on habits. Please, do not ask the credibility or source of this statistics. That was not the first thing that came to my mind when I came across it. Rather it seems to be very true to me when I analyze my own life.
Just reflect on the things you do on a daily basis. When I wake up, I go to the bathroom, get breakfast, get dressed almost without thinking, just out of habit. When I open the Internet, I almost always check the same websites I check every day. When I go to the grocery store, I follow the same path through the aisles, stopping at and picking up the same items every time. There are always a few things that are different, but most of the things we do in a situation are the same every time we are there. We don’t even have to think about it and our brain starts working the usual way, right away.
But these habits were created over time. After you repeat the same routine for a certain time, it becomes a habit. It takes practice and patience to form a positive habit. You just need to do the same task over and over until it comes automatically.
Similarly, it is as difficult if not more to break a negative habit. The best way to break a negative habit is to replace it with a positive one. Either you need to avoid the situation that promotes a negative habit or find a positive replacement for it. For example, people who smoke have an urge of smoking under certain situations. Some people smoke when they are around other people who smoke. So in order to break the habit, they should keep a packet of chewing gum or a candy with them, so when they meet their smoker friends they can start chewing the gum instead. It is certainly difficult in the beginning but if you have the will and a substitute ready, it is not impossible.
I have personally given up smoking, coffee, and soda. Keeping a packet of chewing gum handy and avoiding situations where I would normally smoke helped me to quit smoking. Drinking water in the morning and every time I needed coffee helped me quitting coffee. Drinking water instead of soda when I needed a drink helped me quitting soda. As long as you are determined, it is possible for you to break such negative habits.
But I am not perfect either. In fact, I still have so many negative habits that I want to quit. For example, I still spend endless time on the Internet not doing anything productive. I procrastinate every now and then. There is still so much unproductive time in my everyday life that I should replace with positive habits and productivity. For me productivity is not just limited to making money or learning a skill, it can be anything from spending quality time with friends and family to picking up a good book to read, going for a walk or watching an inspirational YouTube video. It can be anything that can harbor positivity in you and bring the best out of you. Just feeding garbage internet content does not count, so does sitting on the couch and watching TV all day.
So the main intention behind this post is to list all the negative habits that I have to quit and the positive habits that I would like to take. Then, I want to practice these for months and years until they come automatically to me. Bye bye Internet junk and welcome to all the early retirement blogs. Bye bye YouTube junk and welcome business interviews, audiobooks, and podcast. Bye bye lazy mornings and welcome “Miracle Morning”. Well, there are many more but just like any successful person does, I want to start with one or few habits and move on to the next one. So that I will not be overwhelmed all at once and quit prematurely.
What about you? Don’t you want to start a positive habit of your own?
Millionaire Immigrant 