Tag: creating habits

Effective Lifestyle Habit Change Starts with Turning on Your GPS System First
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ― Douglas Adams

How do I change lifestyle habits?- Quora

Before I think about creating or eliminating lifestyle habits, I like to see where I am on my road map called life.

The end of the year or a birthday, or any other lifechanging event is always a great time to take a closer look and see if we are still on the path for what you want out of life.  Don’t just look at what you want from your career but what you want personally and spiritually.  Are you still in alignment with those goals and dreams or have they changed?  That’s when you can figure out what you need to add or eliminate from your life.

What I wanted in life when I was twenty isn’t what I wanted when I reached my forties.  My lifestyle had changed that means my habits had to change too.

For example, I got serious about my health when I had a grandchild.  You think it would have been important throughout my life but realizing I wanted to be around when my grandchild turns 20 was a like a “aha” moment.  I started questioning what I must do to reach that dream or at least head in that direction.

I think any lifestyle change must begin with taking time for self-reflection.  By know where you are on the Life map, you can then set your GPS with intention. With intention, you will gain the clarity and focus you need to stay on your path. You will recognize what habits are taking you towards your destination and what ones are taking you away.

Here are some suggestions on how to reset or recalibrate you GPS system if you’ve gotten off track:
1. Unplug – Disconnect from the distractions that are keeping you from hearing the navigation. Take time to reconnect with who you are. Take up walking, running, or cycling, or something that gets you out of your head and back in balance.
2. Trust the process- Many times we think we know the way and don’t trust the insight that we are receiving from within. We look for external guidance instead of learning how to turn up the GPS volume. We turn it down or off if we don’t like what we are getting.
3. Become a lifetime learner. We are not alone in our struggles. By reading and learning from others, we cut our learning curve in half the time. Time is too short to be going around in circles.
4. Determine what’s right for you. This goes with the first suggestion. The more you find out what’s right for you, you begin to do what’s right for you and turning off the external noise of the world gets a little bit easier.
5. Celebrate how far you have come. This is a life road map, so enjoy the ride!
When you start with knowing who you are and what you want, take a step everyday towards it. This is a life journey not a life sprint.

I would love to learn more about who you are and what you do. Feel free to connect with me through a Meetup group.
1. Confident Strides Women’s Empowerment Network https://bit.ly/CSWENMeetup
2. Confident Strides Personal Development Network Group https://bit.ly/CSPDNMeetup
3. Confident Strides Women’s Professional Network https://bit.ly/CSWPNMeetup
Quote Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/navigation

To connect with me: https://linktr.ee/confidentstrides
December 24, 2021
Cheers to a 30 Day Habit Run: How to Implement a New Habit
“Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.” ― Charles Duhigg

How can we go 30 days with a new habit we want to make without interruption? – Quora

We commonly think we need to “add” a new habit but in truth we are looking to make a change in lifestyle. To implement change in your life, think about not only adding, but also consider, eliminating an old habit or modifying a current one. A moment of reflection always helps to implement and maintain a new habit or lifestyle change.

To implement change, begin by asking yourself questions like:
1. Why do I want to do this? Keep the answer in front of you. If you know why you want to do something, it will give to you the motivation to keep going.
2. What’s the benefit of adding this habit to my life? I don’t like walking in the cold, but I love the clarity and the peace it brings. The benefits sometimes outweigh the effort.
3. What would happen if I gave up on myself and my dream or goal? The pain of regret can provide motivation.
4. How will you feel? You are the only one who makes and breaks the rules. If you interrupt the habit, don’t beat yourself up. Give yourself grace. The biggest thing to celebrate is starting in the first place.
Here are a few suggestions you can do to help:
1. Check off the days you complete the new habit. It’s called “a Streak” or “Don’t Break the Chain”. It’s amazing how great you feel in keeping you habit and checking it off on your calendar is physical proof.
2. Buddy up with someone. I wanted to hit a goal in December, I partnered with someone who also had a goal they want to hit, and we held each other accountable.
3. Set a daily reminder. Use your smart devices as assistants.
4. Write about it. Journal your experience.
I wish everyone a successful lifestyle changes in the coming year!

Quote Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/habits

Here is an invitation to connect with me: https://linktr.ee/confidentstrides

We also just launched our new website where you can find out Youtube videos and Anchor podcast episodes in one location. Check it out here: https://confidentstrides.com
December 13, 2021
How To Be Productive in 2022: Conduct a Year End Review First
“Consider everything an experiment.” ― Corita Kent

How can one be productive? -Quora

As this year ends, I think it’s an excellent time to reflect on just how far we have come.  We focus so much on what we want to achieve that perhaps we don’t stop and realize that we are not the same person we were when the year started. There has been people and experiences that have changed us either for the good or the bad.  This is the time to reflect and see if what you are aiming for is still relevant. Do we need to readjust and realign our priorities?  Do we still feel the same way about these things?

In the military, we would call this time for reflection an After-Action Review or AAR for short.  This is when we would sit down and ask the participants what their experience was. Did we hit our objective?  Where did we come up short and what did we do right? What did you learn? To know is you are productive, you first need to know what the goal was that you were aiming for.

What is your target?

We can apply an AAR to weekly, monthly or year end events.  Did you hit your weekly, monthly, or year-end goal? What did we come up short on and what did we do right?  What have we learned? By taking time to see what worked and what didn’t we can now adjust our aim.

Being productive is only relevant in the terms to what you want to achieve and the kind of life you want to live.
1. Write down your dreams and goals. You can’t hit what you can’t see.
2. Evaluate the activity you engage in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Are they in alignment with your core beliefs? Are they taking you to or away from your goals?
3. Reflect on what is working and what is not. Conduct an After-Action Review.
4. Adjust your aim and keep moving.
For 2022 to be productive for you, take a moment of reflection and see what your core values and beliefs are. Then you will know what kind of activities you need to incorporate or eliminate.

Quote Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/productivity

Here is an invitation to connect with me: https://linktr.ee/confidentstrides

We also just launched our new website where you can find out Youtube videos and Anchor podcast episodes in one location. Check it out here: https://confidentstrides.com
December 10, 2021
Advice on How to Effectively Succeed in Life: Subtract First, Then Add
“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Subtracting is just as effective in business as adding is. The trouble is we don’t think of that mathematical equation first. As an entrepreneur, I am always wanting to add things or processes without taking time to see how or even if this “new” thing should or can be added. It may be a great thing to add but we don’t take the time to see if the time is now to add it and if we add it, what will be affected.

Today, on a business call with a colleague, we discussed the process of elimination. My colleague shared how she looks at the process of elimination as troubleshooting. She has an IT background and shares that by troubleshooting the challenge, we slowly close off different process to see where the proverbial leak is. For example, if you shut off the water line to the kitchen sink to fix a leak but you still have a leak, you know the leak, or the problem isn’t coming from the kitchen sink. You continue to shut off other valves until you isolate the problem source.

We can use this same thinking to find out what is working and not working in our business as well in our personal lives.

I used to do a lot of adding without taking the time to see what was truly working before adding something new to my business. By the time I realized it wasn’t working, I invested either too much time or too much money and found myself too overwhelmed and simply quit. I would simply shut down and then think I failed. Now moving forward, I am working on being more strategic, more intentional about what I want to do and create. I want my “why” to be in alignment with my “what’, which means if I add anything I have to consider subtracting something else.

Subtracting also can mean delegating that task to someone else or finding another way to automate the process. I have found that I would feel like I had to do everything by myself which is another topic to discuss. But what I want to leave you with today is this:
1. Get clear on your purpose or intention
2. Figure out what’s working and what’s not
3. Before adding, consider what do you have to subtract.
As I mentioned in the beginning, this practice is just as effective in our personal lives as it is in business. In our personal life it may be eliminating or cutting back on social media or television time to spend more time with family or adding more time for personal development and reading.

What I believe is this: we are creatures of habit and how we do anything is how we do everything.

Quote Source: https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/subtraction.html

Connect with me: https://linktr.ee/confidentstrides
October 19, 2021
In Your Hands

Creating a new habit is simply taking a wish, writing it down, committing action to accomplish it over and over again. Once it takes root, you develop a “craving”. These cravings are what pulls you towards your future. The power to choose your future is in your hands. Habits are nondiscriminatory so they can work for you or against you. So choose wisely.

Photo credit: click here.

January 5, 2017