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I've just finished reading Change Your Habits, Change your Life by Tom Corley. His 13 habits of successful people were featured on an earlier post, but wanted to give a thorough review. This book was just the inspiration and first step I was looking for. It took hardly no time at all to get through (maybe three days sporadic on and off reading). His book started with the understanding of habits and their purpose as shortcuts to lessen the work load on our brains and more importantly consume less fuel. Did you know the brain consumes 20% of your body's supply of glucose and oxygen? The brain has no glucose storage unlike the rest of your body so when it is working hard when creating new habits it consumes more fuel than normal. Habits are generally formed over many years of repetitive behaviour and thinking, largely due to your surrounding environment and mirrored habits of your parents, caregivers, mentors, etc... Breaking habits or introducing new ones can be extremely difficult and time consuming. The University College of London averaged habit formation to take sixty-six days to fully form. Who has that sort of superhuman willpower?? Not me. In order to change your habits you need to be aware of your habits so start a habit journal. I'm using plain ole pen and paper but there are some great apps out there to help (productive is one that I looked at that has reminders). Again using the SMART goals method, work on a few keystone (unique) habits at a time so you focus your energy on their successful formation. Don't spread yourself too thin! The next step is grading of your habits are they good (+) or bad (-). How do you make that type of determination? Start with your big goals? Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years? Does your habit help you achieve those short or long range goals? MOST IMPORTANTLY are they time effective? Remember that the biggest commodity in your life is your time! Time is non-renewable and a currency that most families and individuals ignore. To really drive this point home, please please listen to Dr. Randy Pausch's talk on Time Management. Dr. Pausch is the man behind the Last Lecture (September 2007), he followed up with one more lecture on time management (November 2007), 3 months and a few days after he was given 3-6 months to live due to aggressive pancreatic cancer. He passed away July 2008. Once you have mastered a few habit changes for a week, add more and so on and so forth. I started with my morning habits. Next week, I'll focus on my habits during the day and at work. Morning Habits Wake up at 5:30 a.m. and first a pit stop in the bathroom before meditation for 15-30 minutes (UCLA's Mindfulness Meditation Podcasts are so well led - there are even people coughing so with your eyes closed are almost in the room with them). Then I let the dogs out and get their breakfast ready while the kettle boils. Make my morning chai latte and ponder while the dogs eat. Next, setting up a Rodan + Fields post and reading an article on the products, followed by daily goal setting. By then it is 7:00 a.m. and I need to shower, pick an outfit, do my hair and makeup, eat breakfast and hit the road. On the commute podcasts from the Banff Centre (must dedicate entire blog post to these gold mines) play via bluetooth in the car giving my morning a extra jolt of inspiration. So far so good, I have introduced the following positive habits to my morning routine:
It is only day two, but I'm feeling upbeat and positive that I can keep them up for at least seven days! On another positive note I have a weight update: 202 lbs. down 6.6 lbs from starting weight of 208.6 lbs. I love crossing those numbers off!! One day at a time.
Within-One-Week Goals Successfully completely all of last week's WOW goals! Here are this weeks:
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About me
I grew up in Athabasca, AB and have spent the majority of my life in Northern Alberta or Montreal, PQ. My husband has been in Fort McMurray since the 70s and continues to love this town and all that it has to offer. We are avid outdoor enthusiasts, spending our summer weekends quadding and camping. As Opimian members we thoroughly enjoy wine pairings and tastings and are working on our wine collection. Ralph is a carpenter by trade and has framed more houses in Fort McMurray than I could count and knows the city inside and out. I work all throughout the region from the NWT to Janvier for the tribal council. My passion is doodling and photography which is featured throughout the website (various mediums), writing, Indigenous studies, and learning in general. Categories |
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