“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude.” ~ Colin Powell
Contents:
Habits for Success – Enjoy Your Daily Routines
Most people have some type of daily routine. They prefer to do one thing before the other in the morning, and it helps them get set up for the day.
Do you have daily routines? Do you enjoy your daily routines?
For something to become a daily routine, you must create the habit. Habits are consistent actions you take that lead to more significant results.
Why is it essential that you enjoy your daily routine? Your daily routine involves actions you will take regularly. In turn, many of these tasks are at the start of your day and will impact your feelings and emotions and your entire day.
It just makes sense that you start your day with joy, doing things that make you happy. We have the ability to make choices, so we can adjust or make little tweaks over time until we’re pleased with the way our day progresses.
Our happiness will affect our attitude, and our positive attitude will influence our results. The reality is that we are creatures of habit, and sometimes we can have something in place that we’re not really happy with, but because we get comfortable, we avoid making changes. However, making the necessary changes is often in our best interests and for our happiness.
Success—as defined by each of us—is related to and intertwined with happiness. In essence, you want to create habits for success and happiness.
Journaling
An effective way to track your daily habits and routine is to journal how your routine works: the results you’re having, how they make you feel, how long they take, and any adjustments you make. You may have other routines that are not necessarily in the mornings, so remember to keep track of those.
For example, do you have nightly routines? Track those, as well as the statistics that are connected to them. Do you start your nightly routines for yourself, or those affecting your family, so late that you get less sleep than is healthy for you?
Do you make it a habit to be reading late at night on devices that reportedly affect your sleep quality? I’ve not done an in-depth study of these claims but based on reports I’ve read, the blue light from electronic devices can affect your sleep quality and even your ability to fall asleep.
Protect Your Sleep Time
I’m sure you already know how important it is to ensure that your body gets the sleep it needs. Yet, as you strive to build a business, you may begin to cut back on your sleep time.
This is not a winning exchange because you sabotage yourself in doing so. Losing sleep leads to feelings of unhappiness, anxiety, and irritability.
In addition, when you do not get the sleep you need, this leads to lower productivity. Your body will begin to slow down physically and cognitively as it’s unable to function at top performance when it does not get adequate sleep. It’s difficult to say how much is enough or too much as each person’s needs vary. For some, eight hours are not enough; for others, eight hours may be too much.
You can determine if you’re getting the right amount by how you feel in the mornings—sluggish or energized and ready to go. Here again, if you’re not sleeping enough, start by examining your sleep habits. If you’ve not done so, it may be time to cultivate routines around getting enough sleep.
Create a Daily Routine: Set Your Worktime
Working from home has many advantages. It also can bring disadvantages, like working very long hours and neglecting other areas of your life.
When I started my online business in 2008, the online world was new to me. I realized I had a lot to learn if I was going to be successful, so I started buying one product after the other. This caused me to spend many hours studying programs and trying to implement them simultaneously.
Since I’d not yet found a good Mentor, I attended many webinars to get a better understanding. The result was that I spent many hours in my home office.
When you allow work to be the most important thing, it throws everything out of balance. There is nothing wrong with working hard. But it’s important to set boundaries around your work time so you spend time with your family, engage in other essential activities, and get time to relax and recharge.
Being conscious about your work time involves creating a routine to stop working when you should consciously. When you are tempted to keep going, ask yourself, “Which part of my life am I stealing time from?” “Am I being fair to myself or those around me?” Of course, various situations can arise, or from time to time, you may have a project that calls for more time. The key is to make these the exception, not a habit.
Conclusion
Creating habits for happiness and success takes time. It will also involve persistence because there’ll always be something else to divert your attention and sabotage your decision.
Visualize what you want your life to look like, and keep this vision as the focus. This will go a long way to keep you motivated as you work on creating sustainable habits and establishing routines.
Remember that people motivated from within are happier and less stressed and also goal achievers.
In addition, appreciate where you are and enjoy the small increments of changes you make to create habits that lead to success and happiness in life and business.
You may have tried to create routines and establish habits but lost momentum because you lack support and accountability. If you’d like to be a part of an intimate and supportive community, please check out my International Profit Circle membership.
