The Power of Daily Habits

Take a look at yourself and your life today. Where you are now is the sum total of all the actions you have taken in the past – or another way to say it is you become what you do.

Most of our behavior is chosen subconsciously. We all have habits, some good and some bad. We get up on the same side of the bed every day. We brush our teeth in the same way and we go about our business in the same way every day.

If you have empowering habits, you’ll be more successful in life. If you have habits that limit you, make small changes to replace them with habits that support your goals.

While there are no shortcuts to any place worth going, small changes really do add up over the long term and there are many small things you can do that will ultimately impact your quality of life in a big way. 

Remember: no one goes for a run one morning and comes back 10kg lighter. No one lifts a dumbbell once and suddenly has arms like Arnold. No one pigs out over Christmas lunch and suddenly is 20kg heavier. In the scheme of things, one off actions do not count too much. What do count are our daily habits – what we do day in, day out – that’s what makes the difference. 

It’s the power of compounding. It doesn’t only apply to money, but also to your health. There is a reason why Albert Einstein called it “The most powerful force in the universe!”

Making a start towards health and wellness needn’t take hours a day or a super strict diet program. EVERYONE can find a way to improve their health – even with minimal effort. And believe me, it’s these small daily changes that turn into positive habits and minimise the risk of major diseases. Whether its cutting out sugar in your tea, doing 30 push ups a day, going for a morning walk, drinking water instead of soft drinks, having an apple instead of a tim-tam, I bet there is one thing (or perhaps quite a few!) that immediately stands out.

Change it.

Imagine exchanging 2 limiting habits for 2 empowering habits every year. In 5 years that would be 10 empowering habits without too much effort. That’s with just 2 a year. They say it takes around a month to create a new habit. What if you focussed on creating 1 empowering habit each month? In 5 years you’d have 60 empowering habits. Do you think your life would be different with 60 empowering habits?

Your successes would pile on top of one another, and you would be living an extraordinary quality of life simply by making small daily changes.

Once a habit is in place, you don’t have to think about it again because it becomes part of your subconscious behaviour. Being healthy may be a bit of effort in the beginning if you currently have limiting habits, but once you get through the initial stages of change, it’s really quite easy.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of advanced exercise routines or fancy diets, do a bit of self evaluation and fix the instantly obvious. The ’secret’ to success lies in simplicity.