“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
Changing yourself is hard.
When I wrote down a list of things I wanted to change about myself, I knew I would occasionally fail.
But I also knew if I didn’t change my process, I wouldn’t change my results.
I wanted to cut down my time spent on immediate gratification such as social media, oversleeping, and not paying myself first (investing for the future).
But while dominating some bad habits and falling prey to others, I’ve found a few effective ways for success.
We are who we identify as. So if I say I’m future-focused, I can’t sit around on my phone all day watching Twitter-fights.
If you identify as someone who is good with money, it’s a lot harder to spend money frivolously. And even harder when you tell friends or family who will hold you accountable when you leave to buy shampoo and return with half of the Target store.
People who go to the gym regularly usually eat healthier than those who don’t. That may be because they are conscious of how much work it took to burn off calories, or because they identify as someone who works out, so they don’t want to put trash in their body.
I’ve also had success replacing bad habits with good ones (credit to Scott Young), such as smokers drinking coffee instead of taking smoke breaks.
I’ve replaced the social media apps on my phone with reading apps so that when I mindlessly open my phone and click on that spot, I can better myself instead of wasting time.
Throughout college I would often push off work (as any good journalist does) and end up writing papers, completing assignments, or writing stories for multiple newspapers at the last minute.
Many of these problems stemmed from not finishing tasks immediately. While I had three jobs in college, I would have had much more time if I had focused on one task at a time.
Procrastination is like masturbation. It may feel good at the time, but in the end, you’re just screwing yourself.
I downloaded an app called Coach.me to instill daily habits by “checking in” every day I’ve completed that habit. After 21 or so days, you should have created that habit, which you’ll do without conscious effort.
Studies have shown that humans only have a limited amount of willpower each day. This is why many people break down near the end of the day and skip the gym or eat junk food, and why former President Obama only wore grey or blue suits and had all of his meals prepared for him. Because the fewer small decisions you make, the more you can focus on the ones that matter.
If you’ve prepped meals for the week, you don’t even have to make the decision whether to eat fast food or cook.
In the same way, when we instill good habits, we can focus on more important things on a day to day basis.
My new habits are drinking 64 oz water, mediation, practicing Spanish, waking up on time, blogging, and reading every day. Although I’ve missed days, I know creating new and healthy habits will give me more time to focus on what’s important and will be the foundation of success.